Connect to a Practitioner

Introduction to the Guide

The SCRA Practice Council, in collaboration with the Council of Education Programs (CEP)
took the time to make this guide in the hopes that it will be used: used by educational
programs, both graduate and undergraduate, to bring in practitioners as speakers and lecturers,
and used by students, to explore the various work settings that Community Psychology
Practitioners are employed in. If you do use this, please take the time to give us input so
we can measure its impact.

What is a Community Psychology Practitioner?

Community Psychology Practice aims “to strengthen the capacity of communities to meet the
needs of constituents and help them to realize their dreams in order to promote well-being, social
justice, economic equity and self-determination through systems, organizational and/or
individual change.” (Julian, 2006); thus, community psychology practitioners are those who do
community work as noted in the definition above and who have been trained as Community
Psychologists. Practitioners can be masters or doctoral trained, and are found in a wide variety
of applied and community-based settings.

What are the 18 Competencies for Practice?

In 2012, a formal set of eighteen competencies for community psychology practice were adopted
by the SCRA Executive Committee (EC) and published in The Community Psychologist (Dalton
& Wolfe 2012). This list is the result of a collaborative process between the Practice Council, the CEP, and SCRA membership. The competencies are divided in 5 categories: Ecological Principles, Community Program Development, Community and Organizational Capacity Building, Community and Social Change, and Community Research. While no practitioner is expected to have all 18, the list will serve to both help practitioners
present their professional competencies to employers, and will help graduate programs prepare
their students for applied careers.

Why the need for a guide?

While many professors consider themselves practitioners, a larger number do not.
This guide is intended to connect practitioners to students via their academic programs, whether
it be teaching a course, being a guest lecturer, or mentoring students on a specific competency.

Acknowledgments

The survey used to create this resource was designed by Dave Julian. The resource was compiled
and created by Ashley Anglin and Sharon Johnson-Hakim, with assistance from Kate O’Connor.

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