GOOD TALK WITH LESLIE SILVER, PhD

Leslie Silver is a graduate of University of California at Berkeley and received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Alliant University in San Francisco.

Leslie began working with the unhoused more than thirty years ago as a social worker in New York City and San Francisco. Leslie witnessed the struggles of people experiencing homelessness – and the grossly insufficient services to help them—from a unique vantage point. The homelessness crisis has grown exponentially in the last 30 years, and Leslie believes that the key to solving this crisis lies in understanding the individual stories of the people experiencing it. For Leslie, OUT HERE is an homage to all the social service workers she has met and worked alongside over the years. She hopes that OUT HERE humanizes the homelessness issue and will inspire productive conversations about how to address this complex problem.

In addition to producing OUT HERE, Leslie runs a private practice outpatient clinic in Davis, California. She also teaches clinical theory and technique and supervises mental health clinicians in training.

Expertise
The inspiration for OUT HERE came from Leslie’s experiences working with the unhoused as a social worker in the 1980’s. The film was the product of Leslie’s vision and she self-funded much of the project. It was through Leslie’s contacts in the social service world in Sacramento that the film team was able to get such intimate access to the subjects. Leslie can speak to what it is really like inside a homeless encampment and how to gain trust with this vulnerable population. She has a clear sense of what is broken in the systems of care servicing the homeless, and which strategies can be implemented to improve the situation.

Speaking History
A city of Davis event hosted by the Yolo County Supervisor, Sacramento State University Renaissance Society and the University of California at Davis adult continuing education class (OLLI).