Community Psychology

1. Community Psychology “Community psychology is, in part, an attempt to find other alternatives for dealing with deviance from social-based norms. What is sought is an approach that avoids labeling differences as necessarily negative or as requiring social control. Community psychology viewed in this way is an attempt to support every person’s right to be different without risk of suffering material and psychological sanctions.” Julian Rappaport (1977)

2. Zeitgeist • The Sixties • Freedom Struggles • National Organization for Women • Gay Liberation Movement • American Indian Movement • Chicano Movement • Black Panthers • Chicago Seven • The Community Mental Health Movement • Conditions • Kennedy’s sister • Deinstitutionalization • The Swampscott Conference

3. SCRA Mission Statement September 26, 2001 The Society for Community Research and Action is an international organization devoted to advancing theory, research, and social action. Its members are committed to promoting health and empowerment and to preventing problems in communities, groups, and individuals. SCRA serves many different disciplines that focus on community research and action.

4. SCRA’s guiding Principles • Community research and action requires explicit attention to and respect for diversity among peoples and settings; • Human competencies and problems are best understood by viewing people within their social, cultural, economic, geographic, and historical contexts; • Community research and action is an active collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and community members that uses multiple methodologies. Such research and action must be undertaken to serve those community members directly concerned, and should be guided by their needs and preferences, as well as by their active participation; • Change strategies are needed at multiple levels in order to foster settings that promote competence and well-being. http://www.scra27.org/about

5. Guiding Principles of Community Psychology

6. Orienting Concepts of Community Psychology

7. Hot Topics in the Field • Dropout prevention • Unemployment • Housing/Homelessness • Community mental health

8. Community Psychology Clinical Psychology • Considers the individual in social context • Advocates social change • Collaborates with citizens to enhance their strengths • Not the expert • Focus on the individual in isolation • Improve lives through individual adaptation • Medical model, deficiencies • Expert role

9. Community Psychology Social Psychology • Attends to forces in outside world • Looks to the peculiarities of social position and context • Values social action; real world observation – in context • Individual interpretations and perceptions of the environment • Identifies universal properties of human nature that make them susceptible to social influence • Theoretical understanding; experimental observations

10. Community Psychology Social Work • Focuses on community, organizational level • Research/theory discipline • One-on-one services to people in need • Alleviate poverty by promoting personal change among poor people • Intervene at the individual or family level • A profession; has a practice Both focus on individual in society, values, social justice, enhance strengths, attention to marginalized people

11. Community Psychology Environmental Psychology • Socially constructed environment and social problems • Emphasis on • Partner with mental health practitioners, social service providers, educators, community activists, policy makers • Physical environment: crowding, noise, resource conservation • Emphasis on experimental methods • Partner with resource managers, community planners, architects Both focus on settings with the goal of improving the quality of people’s lives. Value interdisciplinary approaches to research and practice

12. Preventing Burnout • Expectations for improvement • Expectations of simple solutions • Expectations of immediate success • Expectations of client motivation • Expectations of appreciation

13. Seven Qualities of Community Psychologists • Clearly identified competence • Creating an Eco-identity • Tolerance/Appreciation of diversity • Coping effectively with varied resources • Commitment to risk taking • Balance of patience and zeal • Giving away the by-line James Kelly, 1971

14. Who Are Community Psychologists • Organizers, teachers, program directors, politicians, consultants, educators, healers, co-learners, technical assistants, writers, ambassadors, problems solvers, visionaries, activists, fundraisers, workshop leaders, facilitators, service deliverers, mediators, analysts, problem solvers, managers, administrators, documenters/historians, evaluators, researchers, planners, advocates, policymakers, and trouble makers.

15. What do we do? With a Masters degree Community psychologists: • Work with a community service agency for children, families, the homeless, older citizens, disabled persons or those with mental illness • Work with local, state, or national government agencies assisting in policy analysis and policy making roles, such as serving as staff to elected officials • Conduct evaluations of community programs and policies • Provide consultation on community development and change initiatives • Work with not-for-profit and grass roots organizations • Work on initiatives to solve community problems and improve quality of life in communities • Work with prevention programs in a variety of settings

16. What do we do? With a Doctoral degree Community psychologists: • Teach and do research in a college or university • Direct a community service agency • Work with local, state, or national government agencies in policy analysis and policy making roles • Conduct evaluations of community programs and policies • Apply the research skills of the doctoral degree to analysis of community change • Provide consultation on community development and change • Direct initiatives to solve community problems and improve quality of life in communities implement and evaluate prevention programs • Work in business or industry on quality of life and workplace issues, prevention of organizational problems, or employee assistance programs

17. Research • Basic research: designed to test hypotheses and add to the body of knowledge • Applied research: clear and purposeful implications for social intervention • Action research: challenges the status quo and promotes social change. Knowledge accumulates though cycles of planning/action using results to plan anew. • Participatory research: the disenfranchised people of concern to researchers do not simply supply the data; they set the research agenda, define the questions, interpret the data and disseminate the results. The researcher gives up control and the expert role. • Evaluation: process/formative evaluations, outcome/summative evaluations, cost-benefit analysis – hold the program accountable to the funders and the community

18. Academics vs. Application • For academics, reflection and writing are part of the scholarship required in a research setting • Practitioners are too busy doing to write about it. • Although both work to improve communities, conduct research, and develop theory, they have different priorities, face different challenges and receive different rewards.

19. Guiding Principles Affect Research

20. The Applied Side Our values, theories and research do not house families, provide teenage mothers with day care and jobs or prevent young men of color from crowding the jails. Only a practice of community psychology can show what a difference our field can make” David Chavis, 1993

21. Consultation Models: • Client-centered • Consultee-centered • Community consultation Characteristics: • Sensitive to group processes and networks of relationships within and across the setting • The setting is in charge – dispense advice, not orders, offers a fresh perspective of the organization and help identify and nurture indigenous resources – brings a level of honesty and openness

22. Consultation Stages: • Entry • Diagnosis • Implementation • Disengagement Challenges: • Conflict between consultant values and group values • Time commitment and length of involvement • Do not foster dependence

23. Creation of Alternative Settings • “Any instance in which two or more people come together in new relationships over a sustained period in order to achieve certain goals” • New and untried ways of addressing social problems • Form out of dissatisfaction with existing settings, coupled with optimism about the possibility of having a positive effect • Programs, support groups, shelters, alternative schools

24. Alternative Settings Challenges: • How to become established while remaining radical • Funding • Coalitions/collaborations • Sustainability

25. Community Organizing & Coalition Building “Intentional activities to bring community residents together in joint action designed to improve the context of their lives both locally and in the broader society” Bill Berkowitz Saul Alinsky (1971) – visible enemy, confrontation, redistribution of power Coalitions bring together community members, organizations, and other constituencies to resolve local problems and meet resident needs