The Community Psychologist

From the President

Fabricio E. Balcazar
University of Illinois at Chicago

We Change the World One Person at a Time

The SCRA Executive Committee (EC) met recently in Chicago for our annual Mid-Winter Meeting (MWM). This year, as the years before, we had extensive discussions to review the annual reports from the various committees and officers, as well as approve the budget for the current fiscal year (January 1 to December 31, 2014).

From the Editors
Gregor V. Sarkisian and Sylvie Taylor
Antioch University Los Angeles

Awards abound as we enter spring! We would like to share our sincerest congratulations to Drs. Snowden, Wolff, and Melton, for their prestigious awards from the APA and to all of the SCRA award recipients for their achievements. This issue also features statements from nominees for the President Elect, Member-at-Large, and APA Council Representative. The Self-help and Mutual Support Interest group has shared a Proposed APA Resolution on Self-help Support Groups and the editors of the Public Policy Interest group review their recent activities. We close with the second installment of Remembering Swampscott.

Proposed APA Resolution on Self-help Support Groups

The Society for Community Research and Action Self-Help/ Mutual Support Interest Group

At the 2011 Biennial Meeting of SCRA in Chicago, the Self-Help and Mutual Support Interest Group decided to promote broader access to self-help/mutual support groups. After follow-up discussions on the interest group listserv and with SCRA leadership, we decided to propose a formal Resolution to APA.

Special Report

SCRA Community Psychology Practice Council: Summit on Community Psychology Practice II

Written by Jasmine Douglas, Wichita State University, Olya Glantsman, DePaul University, Kyrah K. Brown, Wichita State University, Mike Lemke, Wichita State University, Sharon Johnson-Hakim, Atlantic Health System, Tom Wolff, Tom Wolff & Associates, Greg Meissen, Wichita State University

Overview

The Community Psychology Practice Council (CPPC) hosted the second Community Psychology Practice Summit on June 26, 2013, as part of the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) Biennial Conference in Miami, FL. Similar to the first Practice Summit in 2007, this venue had broad interest as shown through registration. Seventy-five active and motivated participants attended the Summit. The action-oriented event consisted of four major goals: (1) Re-energize the field of Community Psychology Practice; (2) Sharpen and broaden our community psychology practice action agenda; (3) Identify concrete new directions and make plans to work on them; and (4) Engage new people who will take some responsibility for follow-up.

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Community Action

Edited by Bradley Olson

Building a Sense of Community in Euromaidan Ukrainian Protests

Written by Myra Dutko, National Louis University and Tanya Dutko, Roosevelt University

Community psychologists who are interested in organizing and activism may find the Ukrainian-American community’s efforts to reach outside their tightly held cultural boundaries to gains support for their cause, an informative look at how activists mediate sense of community.

The Community Practitioner

Edited by Susan Wolfe

Community Psychology Careers in Education

Educational institutions offer community psychologists a range of career opportunities beyond teaching and doing scholarly research. Most have research and evaluation or institutional research offices that collect and analyze data focused on improving the educational and other services they provide. In the Winter 2014 issue, we introduced three contributors but were only able to include one submission. In this issue, Jamie DeLeeuw shares information about her work as a Coordinator of Institutional Research, Evaluation and Assessment for Monroe County Community College. And, Cathy Crosby-Currie and Christine Zimmerman share their perspectives on working in institutional research at St. Lawrence University.

Environment and Justice

Edited by Manuel Reimer and Sara Wicks

The Power of the Narrative Approach in Facilitating Student's Learning About Environment Justice

Written by Alexa Stovold, Masters of Arts, Community Psychology Program, Wilfrid Laurier University

I have always had an interest in studying topics like social justice, prejudice, discrimination and oppression. However, my desire to study these issues sparked when I took a course titled: Environment, Psychology and Action. Originally, I was interested in taking this course as I had little knowledge of environmental issues and how they applied to psychological theories. Interestingly, this course focused on current environmental issues such as global climate change, resource depletion, sustainable behaviour, environmental justice, and the human impact on our environment. Additionally, we had a number of guest speakers present on environmental issues relevant to the course, and there was one individual who had a lasting impression on me.

Living Community Psychology

Written by Gloria Levin

“Living Community Psychology” highlights a community psychologist through an in-depth interview that is intended to depict both personal and professional aspects of the featured individual. The intent is to personalize Community Psychology as it is lived by its diverse practitioners.

For this installment, we profile a clinical/community psychologist who is now working as a volunteer mentalhealth expert for Doctors without Borders:

Cindy Scott, Psy.D.
Mental Health Officer
Doctors without Borders

Public Policy

Edited by Douglas D. Perkins and Kenneth Maton

Advocacy, Collaboration, Capacity Building and Development: A Year in Review From the Policy Committee

Written by J’Vonnah Maryman, Kenneth Maton, and Douglas D. Perkins

Public policy can be understood as a deliberate course of action that affects the people as a whole, now and in the future (Cordray & Morphy, 2007). The SCRA Public Policy Committee seeks to affect policy through advocacy, collaboration, capacity building and development. In 2013 the committee embarked upon a number of new and challenging endeavors creating avenues to spread the reach of policy work.

Regional Update Spring 2014

Edited by Regina Langhout, Regional Network Coordinator, langhout@ucsc.edu; University of California at Santa Cruz

This quarter, we have two student coordinators who have finished their terms: Rebecca Rodriguez, from Georgia State University, and Kendra Swain, from Curtin University in Australia. Thanks to both of them for their work for SCRA! I would also like to welcome a new student regional coordinator, Rahman Gray, from Victoria University in Australia. As we turn to current work across the regions, I encourage you to think about Seymour Sarason’s The Creation of Settings as you read about Egypt, as well as the U.S. Southwest and Southeast Regions. Community psychology has so much to offer our colleagues, our comrades, and us!

Rural Issues

Edited by Susana Helm and Cecile Lardon

The Rural IG column highlights the work of community psychologist and colleagues in their rural environments. We welcome your submissions and inquiries! With any submission, we will provide timely feedback in the form of track changes and comment bubbles on your word document, so that a series of revisions is possible. We aim for submissions of about 1200 words, with about 10 APA style references. Photographs (jpegs) and other graphics enhance articles, which are now published in the online version of TCP in color! Please send submissions to Susana (HelmS@dop.hawaii.edu). This is a great opportunity for students to share their preliminary thesis or dissertation work, or insights gained in rural community internships.

School Intervention Interest Group

Edited by Melissa Maras and Joni Splett

Greetings from the School Intervention Interest Group!! The research-to-practice gap is a significant issue in the public school system. While many researchers follow the traditional research-centered approach when developing and disseminating evidence-based practices, others utilize participatory approaches driven by practice-based evidence to develop externally valid and sustainable innovations. In this issue of TCP, we are pleased to feature the work of such community-driven researchers. The article describes how these researchers used practice-based evidence to iteratively develop and evaluate a school-based mentoring program that is gaining empirical support and positive reviews from partnering public school districts.

Student Issues

Edited by Danielle Kohfeldt and Chuck Sepers

The Seven Core Values of Community Psychology Provide a Valuable Perspective to Research on Human Trafficking

Written by Kristen Gleason, University of Hawai’i at Manoa

Human trafficking has captured public attention for more than a decade. Horrific examples of exploitation and abuse across multiple industries, including the sex industry, agriculture, domestic service, factory work, and hospitality, have been widely publicized in the news. Still, the voice of scholarly research is often noticeably absent from the public discourse surrounding human trafficking, as are the voices of formerly trafficked persons.

Remembering Swampscott

Swampscott and its Impact

It is among my (many) regrets in life that I was not in attendance in Boston in 1965 at the Swampscott Conference on training in community psychology. The position the conference adopted proved highly liberating for the field of clinical psychology in terms of practice and conception. At the time, I was working at the Yale Psychoeducational Clinic with Seymour Sarason. The clinic was newly established in 1963 within the Psychology Department.

TCP 47(2) Spring 2014