Principles of Social Change: Partnerships for Social Justice

1. Principles of Social Change:Partnerships for Social Justice Leonard A. Jason, Ph.D. DePaul University Keynote address presented at the 2013 SCRA Biennial Conference, Miami, Fl.

2. The Starting Point? • Change begins by helping people identify issues for which they have strong feelings • Paulo Freire (1970) • Social change more likely • we have a passionate interest

3. Intuition: Our Guide • Is the beginning of social change • recognition that something is wrong and unfair • The feeling is clear • something needs to change • Intuition can steer us in the right direction • toward second-order change

4. Principles of Social Change • Structural, second-order change • Confronting power abuses • Mobilizing coalitions • Having a long-term time perspective • Using feedback to fine tune work

5. Concrete Examples Illustrate How Efforts Directed Toward • Agenda setting • Policy formulation • Policy implementation • Policy evaluation/revision

6. The First Principle of Social Change Determining the nature of the change desired cosmetic/short-term fix address the root of the problem

7. First-Order Change • Attempts to eliminate deficits and problems • promises to solve the most deeply rooted problems with simple solutions • provides, at best, short-term solutions • can render people powerless to overcome their oppression

8. Second-Order Change Environmental • Influences the individual and his or her social network • Alters shared goals, roles, and power relationships Social Individual Bronfenbrenner (1977) Kelly (1968) Moos (1979)

9. Example Second-Order Change • Each year thousands of children are either injured or killed in car accidents • due to not being placed in appropriate infant and car seats • In the 1980s, leading cause of death for children under one year of age • car accidents because infants were not in appropriate infant seats

10. 1980s, National Coalition Attempted Influence Legislation • Illinois Child Passenger Safety Association • a community-based organization trying to get child restraint legislation

11. Focus on a Proposed Illinois Child Passenger Restraint Law • Children under the age of four required to be placed in an approved child or infant car seat • Children aged four to six required to be placed in either an approved restraint system or a secure seat belt

12. Could We Influence Illinois Legislators to Vote for this Bill? • Our research team collected behavioral data by looking inside cars to see whether or not infants and children were placed in car restraints • also collected telephone surveys regarding attitudes toward child-restraint bill

13. In Collaboration with Illinois Organization • Sent critical information to random half of the state legislators • assess whether our targeted letter had made a difference in voting for the bill • Letter was received one week before vote • the information was clear and concise • increased our chances that the letter would be both read and remembered

14. Content in Letter to Legislators • 140 children in Illinois were killed and 25,828 injured in automobile accidents • over the last 6 years • 93 percent of Illinois children were not in adequate restraints while riding in cars • 78 percent of adults supported the child passenger restraint bill 140 children 93 percent 78 percent

15. Significantly Increased Voting for the Bill • 79% of Senators who received the information voted for passage of the bill • only 53% of Senators who did not receive the letter voted for the bill • Governor requested a copy of our findings before signing the legislation

16. Immediate Behavioral Outcomes • For children between the ages 1-4 • car restraint use increased from 13 to 42% • For infants less than one year of age • appropriate restraints increased from 49 to 74%

17. Longer-Term Outcomes • Comparing deaths two years before to the period two years after the law • Child deaths caused by traffic accidents decreased by 53%

18. Comments Illinois Child Passenger Safety Association • “The data were helpful and important and of high priority to have as part of the armamentarium” • “The data were very, very interesting. It was a building block in the passage of the bill.” • “Those who had the data and understood them, it made them more forceful and vocal in support of the bill.”

19. Second-Order Change • We worked collaboratively with community-based organizations in Illinois • our data influenced legislative officials to support laws that contributed to second-order change • In this case protecting the safety of infants and children when driven in automobiles

20. Principle One: Focus on Second-Order Change • Only through more structural interventions will we make a significant difference in solving our social problems • Such as example involving legislative change • Second-order interventions direct precious resources in more productive ways • go beyond a reactive response by enacting measures to avoid potential problems

21. The Second Principle of Social Change Identifying the power holders Creating second-order change can seem overwhelming powerful people or organizations control whether change will be enacted Social inequality are caused by an underlying abuse of power redistributing power is often a crucial component to second-order social movements

22. Causes of abuse and underlying power structure difficult to see clearly • gut instincts is powerful tool to uncover the veiled power abuses • We must use the same passion and intuition that helps one see the path towards effective second order change • to identify and analyze the distribution of power

23. Tobacco kills over 400,000 people yearly The MOST preventable cause of premature disease and death

24. Case Example: Tobacco Industry • Tobacco industry is responsible for enticing many young people to begin smoking • Every day 3000 American adolescents become established smokers • of these children, 1,000 will eventually die of tobacco-related illnesses

25. Tobacco Industry • Multiple efforts to widely distribute cigarettes to youth • how to fight this Industry that has vast resources?

26. Early 1980s • We launched school-based smoking prevention programs • students told us merchants were openly selling them cigarettes • contradiction with our tobacco prevention messages

27. How To Stop the Tobacco Industry? • Person oriented approaches compromised by social and environmental factors such as merchants selling tobacco to youth • The Tobacco industry had power to influence any laws that could affect sales of tobacco to youth

28. Exploratory Study • Our intuition pushed us to explore the students’ critical input • assessed illegal merchant sales of tobacco • we sent youth into stores to purchase cigarettes • over 80% of merchants sold cigarettes to minors

29. Media picks up our Study E:\TobaccoJacobsonBrief.mov F:\TobaccoJacobsonBrief.mov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ48iuW-d70

30. Officer Talbot Calls Me After Seeing This TV Broadcast • Mentioned Woodridge Illinois had solved this problem • sending letters to all the merchants • Collaboration began with collecting data • found over 70% of merchants sold tobacco to youth

31. An Intervention is Designed to Deal with this Problem • Merchants in Woodridge were required to purchase a license to sell cigarettes • Fined up to $500 and/or one day license suspension for selling to minors • Minors caught smoking, $25 parking-style ticket (parents are notified)

33. Outcomes • Two years after implementing the two-pronged program • rates of merchant cigarette sales to minors decreased from an average of 70% to less than 5% • adolescent smoking decreased over fifty percent in a Woodridge junior high school

34. Officer Buzz Talbot of Woodridge: National Figure • Using Woodridge as his model, Officer Talbot was instrumental in the passage of a federal amendment • States are now bound by federal law to reduce illegal sales of tobacco to minors • Officer Talbot worked with grass roots organizations throughout the U.S. in disseminating his successes in Woodridge

36. Invited testify congress during Tobacco Settlement • encourage progress in the anti-tobacco movement • reducing youth access to tobacco • increasing costs of cigarettes

37. DiFranza (2009) • Laws prohibiting sales of cigarettes to minors and stepped up enforcement of those laws in the United States from 1997-2003 • led to 20.8 percent drop in the odds of 10th graders becoming daily smokers

38. Research Made Difference • Now a consensus that sales to minors should be prevented illustrated by • Framework Convention on Tobacco Control unanimously adopted by the World Health Assembly • attracted more than 172 member states representing 90 percent of the world’s population

39. Paradigm Shift • Focusing on both the youth and their environments and ultimately changing policy • initially over 80% of merchants sold minors tobacco illegally • today the vast majority of merchants do not • Culminated in the passage of a federal amendment that led to states curtailing illegal sales of tobacco to youth

40. Second-Order Change Addressed Power Structures • Tobacco industry’s formidable resources • to manipulate American youth and provide them easy access to tobacco • Power holders like the Tobacco Industry had to be challenged by coalitions • community psychologists can play an important role in this advocacy effort

41. The Third Principle of Social Change Focused and collective efforts can lead to broad second-order change through the use of our third principle identifying and mobilizing individuals and community groups to influence the cultural and political landscape affecting social change

42. The Key to the Third Principle • Citizen participation in democratic processes • ensure that community members have meaningful involvement • The third principle of social change • community coalitions can change power structures that perpetuate first-order institutional ways of treating people

43. Oxford House Example Citizen Participation F:\Ohoverview.mov E:\OHoverview.mov http://youtu.be/YLodwGNChzw

44. 60 Min Tape F:\60minBrief.mov E:\60minBrief.mov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iVURP4Pvkc

45. NIH Reviewers: Randomization • I thought it was not possible -- as each OH votes on whether to allow new people in • 7 years working on proposal with Paul Molloy • Paul said he would make it happen • Later learned another research group had approached Paul Molloy years before I had • They asked to do a randomized study • Paul said “no” to them as he had not built up a supportive relationship of trust with them

46. Problem of NIMBY • Lawyer asked for our help over a town trying to close down the local Oxford House • claiming that there could be no more than five unrelated individuals living in one home • Examined our national Oxford House data • we found that a larger house sizes or eight to ten residents less criminal behavior • Findings successfully used in several court cases stop closing Oxford Houses that had six or more non-related residents.

47. Paul Molloy’s note to me • “ …The dispute has been ongoing for six years! The town will pay attorney’s fees, which are about $105,000 and a fine to the Department of Justice. The key to their decision appears to be your research showing that larger houses had better outcomes than the smaller ones. Thanks. Once again reason and logic prevailed.”

48. Community coalitions • Such as the example of Oxford House and DePaul University • revolutionize how we treat our most vulnerable citizens • millions need affordable housing • millions of homes are available • Oxford House represents one creative approach • deal both of these issues synergistically

49. Third Principle of Social Change • Community coalitions can be mobilized to transform many of the most serious problems that affect our society • can change power structures that perpetuate institutional ways of treating people • bottom-up social change movements can create community-based programs that allow people to be reintegrated into society

50. The Fourth Principle of Social Change Second-order change takes time progress can be gradual and uneven will be setbacks along the way Patience and a long-term commitment the fourth principle of social change critical aspects of social change movements