The Community Psychologist

From the President

Susan McMahon

DePaul University

As we greet Spring with enthusiasm, there are a variety of exciting SCRA updates. Our Executive Committee met February 2nd-4th in Atlanta, Georgia. Jim Emshoff and Georgia State University were gracious hosts for our productive meeting. This meeting serves an important purpose for us to come together to review the many facets of our strategic plan, capture our progress to date, and discuss and move forward with new initiatives.

From the Editors
Daniel Cooper and Tiffany McDowell
Adler University, Chicago

Welcome to Spring! As we transition into the next season it is a good time to reflect on the great work happening in our field. The Spring issue features several projects from community psychologists working in a variety of settings. Olya Glantsman and Nicole Freund provide us with an overview of the Practice Council and upcoming initiatives to support practitioners over the next year. From CERA’s column on negotiating intersections of identity to mentor students, to Gloria Levin’s profile of Kyrah Brown, we see the multiple ways that community psychologists challenge and shape the contexts in which they work. Coming off the EC midwinter meeting, we hope to provide more opportunities for you to share the great research and practical work you are doing. We look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming Biennial!

Dan and Tiffany

The Community Practitioner

Edited by Olya Glantsman

Building Strength in 2016 for the Work Ahead

Written by Olya Glantsman and Nicole Freund

A Year in Review

In 2016, the Practice Council (PC) built on its strengths in order to gain momentum as members move into 2017 and the challenges that await community psychology practitioners. We describe these strengths in the updates that follow and share the new avenues for action that are being explored for 2017. Practitioner Connection.

Committee on Ethnic & Racial Affairs

Edited by Chiara Sabina

sabina@psu.edu

Penn State Harrisburg

Kinship, Justice and Students of Color

Written by Bianca Guzman

bguzman@calstatela.edu

California State University

In 2012, I published an article in the Journal of Community Psychology (Guzmán, 2012) called “The educational journey of a Latina feminist community psychologist.” This piece was part of a special issue on feminist community psychology. The main goal of that piece was to describe in some detail the journey that had led me to become a Latina feminist community psychologist. At that point in my career I had just been promoted to an associate professor at a primarily teaching institution. Over my 21 years in academia I have taught and mentored hundreds of students, mostly of color. Recently, I was asked by the Committee on Ethnic and Racial Affairs to write a follow up piece on my journey and to discuss how my journey has included students. My first thought is why would a piece like this be interesting to the field of community psychology. I mean really, what could I add that has not already been said about teaching and mentoring students of color? So, my response to this question is complicated. First, there is too few Latina women who receive doctoral degrees in psychology, many fewer specialize in community psychology and fewer yet have the opportunity to teach and mentor at an urban institution that has a diverse student population. I am also a triple threat minority in that I am a woman, Latina, and an immigrant so the views and conclusions I hold about higher education may be unconventional. My colleagues and other academics comment that I am at the margins of my field. This is not an offensive comment to me since I have always felt that I am swimming upstream and that the theories and concepts that I endorse are often controversial. I find this a welcome challenge but it does not come without a lot of struggle. This idea of struggle is nothing new to people of color or to other groups or individuals that are often marginalized. Given this information perhaps what I share can provide some valuable information about how students of color can be mentored to succeed in higher education with techniques that may often seem unconventional. I must point out that I am not sharing any techniques that are radical; anyone can do the things that I am suggesting and I predict that rewarding experiences must follow. The other caveat that I want to mention is that I am 100% invested in the success of my students as I am sure we all are. I am also passionate and love interacting with them and I think the environment I create in the lab is warm and welcoming.

Council on Education

Edited by Raymond Legler
rlegler@nl.edu
National Louis University

The 2016 Survey of Graduate Programs in Community Psychology: Findings on Competencies in Research & Practice and Challenges of Training Programs

Written by Mason G. Haber, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School & Judge Baker Children’s Center; Zachary Neal, Michigan State University; Brian Christens, Victoria Faust, and Lisa Jackson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Laura Kohn Wood, University of Miami; Taylor Bishop Scott, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Raymond Legler, National Louis University; and the Members of the Society for Community Research and Action Council of Education

International Affairs

Understanding home: a reflection with ethnic young women who are victims of sex-trafficking in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Written by Yui Sum Poon
cyanea.poon@my.wheaton.edu
Wheaton College

Background
The trafficking of women is a major problem that exists in Thailand, with a realistic estimate of around 100,000 and 200,000 female sex workers throughout the country (Peracca et.al, 1998). Women-trafficking can emerge through various forms, including both voluntary and involuntary situations, as well as rural-urban migrations and cross-border migrations. Moreover, it usually arises from situations such as poverty, familial abuse, neglect, and caregiver drug and alcohol use (Farley et.al. 2003; Herman, 2003, Kara, 2009). These women are often pressured into, and stay within, the sex-trafficking industry due to the lack of viable livelihood alternatives (Mah, 2011).

Living Community Psychology

Written by Gloria Levin

Glorialevin@verizon.net

“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. Prior columns are available online, at https://www.scra27.org/publications/tcp/tcp-past-issues. These past columns contain a wealth of life advice gleaned from over 60 profiled community psychologists, from graduate students to retirees, representing an invaluable resource for community psychologists. For this installment, we feature an early career community psychologist who has always been an activist in her communities -- a perfect fit for Community Psychology. Although she struggled at finding a position after earning her doctorate, she eventually landed a challenging and rewarding position in the nonprofit world. Her story is instructive for the many recent Ph.D.’s who are caught in the Catch 22 of applying for an entrylevel professional job but expected to already have considerable prior professional experience and accomplishments.

Rural Interest Group

Edited by Susana Helm, PhD

University of Hawai`i at Mānoa,
Rural.IG@scra27.org

Co-Editors Cheryl Ramos, PhD
and Suzanne Phillips, PhD

The Rural IG column highlights rural resources as well as the work of community psychologist, students, and colleagues in their rural environments. Please email Susana if you would like to submit a brief rural report or if you have resources we may list here.

Rural Resources: Rural Suicide Prevention & Treatment

Literature Review on Rural Suicide.
Although it is a decade old, the Hirsch review article is a great resource. The article “examine[d] the current body of literature on rural suicide and investigate[d] differences between rural and urban suicide, including socioeconomic, psychological, and cultural variables. Prevention and intervention strategies specific to rural communities are discussed.”

Self Help Interest Group

Edited by Greg Townley and Alicia Lucksted

Seeking interested individuals for Self-help Interest Group leadership position: Our second term as interest group co-chairs ends in Summer 2017, and we are hoping to identify individuals interested in taking over this leadership position. We will happily provide technical assistance to make the transition as smooth as possible. Please email Alicia (Aluckste@psych.umaryland.edu) and Greg (gtownley@pdx.edu) to discuss further!

Take Off Pounds Sensibly: A Self-Help and Mutual Support Organization

Written by Lauren E. Chacon and Jessica Corral,

The University of Texas at El Paso;

and Louis D. Brown,

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Obesity, a burgeoning disease, causes numerous comorbidities such as heart disease, diabetes, and increased risk for chronic diseases (Goldkamp, Anderson, Lifits‐Podorozhansky, & Gavard, 2015). While popular weight loss approaches, such as pills, diets, and exercise fads can be dangerous and detrimental to health, Take Off Pounds Sensibly offers a sensible and economical solution to the obesity epidemic.

TCP 50(2) Spring 2017