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mural at 640 Poplar Street, a building owned by local
developer Miller Heath, and covered up a temporary
painting that had first been made for a film set. The
design reflected her vision and the organization's
needs, Young said.
For example, triangles of different sizes are in the
mural's background. "They [NWDA] have these little
tiny elements that they implement into their branding,
and so I just tried to use what they had that meant
something to me," Young, who is Chichimeca and
Apache, explained. "The triangle means water. It's
life. It's all kinds of other things that have symbolic
meanings in my culture." The figures in the center
represent what appears to be a care worker with a
client, showing the close and vulnerable relationship
care work often creates.
Young flew out to Macon for a week to complete
the mural, enjoying feedback from Maconites as she
painted it. She wants care workers to feel seen for
"their leadership, their labor, and their resilience."
It's about their love, too, adds Brawley, who said
she has felt the mural deeply each time she's seen
it. On the job, "I fell in love with everybody. I treated
everybody as if it was my mom, as if it was my sister,
if it was my dad or my brother. So I mean, I just go in,
and I just make myself a part of the family," she said.
Despite the dedication of care workers like
Brawley, the care crisis is far from over. Georgia was
ranked this year as the third-worst of all 50 states for
senior care staffing, according to a study by Seniorly
Resource Center that analyzed six metrics, such as
employee turnover, staff-to-occupancy ratios, and
