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Global Journal of
Community Psychology Practice

PROMOTING COMMUNITY PRACTICE FOR SOCIAL BENEFIT

An Exchange of Ideas, Information and Resources for Community Practitioners Volume 3 Issue 2 June 11, 2012

on this site HOME ABOUT THE GJCPP SPONSORS PAST ISSUES SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE SUBMISSIONS DONATIONS SEND TO A FRIEND CONTACT US featured video As an approach to improving community health, the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center brought together 16 youth, half of whom identify as white and half of whom identify as people of color, to participate in a year-long racial healing and reconciliation process. Please take 15 mins to watch this video and allow yourself to have, and even express, the feelings that come up. That is their charge to us. Racial healing is the work required for and by each of us so we can live into our full humanity. Watch the video View all media Editorial Welcome to this Issue on the Australia Community Psychology Experience Welcome to this Issue of the GJCPP focused on the Australia Community Psychology experience in advocating for space at the broader psychology table. In addition to the main article and the commentaries, please be sure to listen to the audio interviews of the authors. Read more... View all...	featured articles from around the globe Lobbying for Endorsement of Community Psychology in Australia Lynne Cohen, Julie Dean, Heather Gridley, Rebecca Hogea, Ken Robinson, Emma Sampson, Anne Sibbel, and Colleen Turner, Australian Psychological Society College of Community Psychologists Peer Reviewed This paper describes the intense lobbying effort coordinated by the National Committee of the Australian Psychological Society College of Community Psychologists and their supporters, which was sustained over many months and led ultimately to a changed decision by the Australian Health Ministers.  The story is important for community psychology as it demonstrates the power of collective, integrated and focussed political lobbying, in this case to promote and to inform others of the key contributions of community psychology to health policy, illness prevention and primary care. Read more... Commentary: Invisibility and informality in Latin American Community Psychology Maritza Montero, Universidad Central de Venezuela This paper is a commentary on the Australia experience of advocating for the place of Community Psychology within the field of Psychology more broadly. In it, Dr Montero describes her experience, and the experience of others in Community Psychology in Latin America. Read more... Commentary: Lobbying for Endorsement of Community Psychology in Australia and the Invisibility of Community Psychology in the United States Sylvie Taylor, Ph.D. and Gregor V. Sarkisian, Ph.D., Antioch University Los Angeles The challenges faced by our Australian colleagues raise a range of questions about the future of Community Psychology (CP) in contexts that have become increasingly focused on the legitimizing of academic programs and professions by bureaucratic governmental entities whose understanding of the disciplines and professions they seek to legitimize may be limited at best.  More importantly, their struggle points to challenges within academic psychology, as CP continues to struggle for a place at the table of organized psychology.  Perhaps the greatest lesson in the narrative of this struggle was how some of the tools of the discipline were used to resolve what was perceived to be a crisis threatening the very survival of CP in Australia. Read more... Commentary: The proof of the pudding is in the eating Francine Lavoie, École de psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada. Francine.lavoie@psy.ulaval.ca Marie-Hélène Gagné, École de psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada This commentary is offered by two Community Psychologists from Canada with experience in attempting to carve a niche for community psychology in their country. Their suggested lessons learned include the need for lobbying, the developing of friends across a variety of fields, timing is important, and learning from the work of colleagues in other countries. Read more... Commentary to “Lobbying for Endorsement of Community Psychology in Australia” Donata Francescato Professor of Community Psychology, University Sapienza Rome, Italy This paper is a commentary on the Australia experience of advocating for the place of Community Psychology within the field of Psychology more broadly. In it, Dr Francescato describes her experience, and the experience of others in Community Psychology in Italy. Read more... A Rose is a Rose is a Rose... Why Community Psychology needs to stand up for its Endorsement on an Interdisciplinary and Societal Ground Wolfgang Stark Australian colleagues (Cohen, Dean, Gridley, Hogea, Robinson, Sampson, Sibell & Turner 2012), based on the struggle for endorsement of Community Psychology (CP) in Australia, have initiated an important debate which goes beyond the issue of professionalisation of CP. The Australian case raises issues on the professional and political identity of Community Psychology. Based on the German experience, in this paper the process of traditional professionalization is challenged. Read more... Developing Alliances: Commentary on Lobbying for Endorsement of Community Psychology in Australia James R. Cook University of North Carolina at Charlotte This article provides a good example of community psychology in action, mobilizing resources, organizing constituents, utilizing allies and partners, and working political systems to effect change (or, more specifically,  to prevent an adverse change).  Knowing your enemy, using social networks, tailoring your message to the values of your audience, and working to “convince the organ grinder, rather than the monkey” are all important aspects of good community change efforts. Read more... Commentary on Lobbying for endorsement of Community Psychology in Australia Neville Robertson, University of Waikato In their interesting and highly reflective article, my Aussie colleagues have nicely encapsulated some of the dilemmas and challenges which also face community psychologists on this side of the ditch. (For readers unfamiliar with downunder colloquialisms and/or geography, the “ditch” is the 2,000 kilometre-wide Tasman Sea which separates the east coast of Australia from the west coast of Aotearoa/New Zealand .) Like our cousins, we have often suffered from low visibility, we have had to fight for recognition, and we have had to resist hegemonic models of what constitutes psychology. Like them, it has often been our political nous, our networking and our advocacy skills which have carried the day. Read more... Further Comments Caterina Arcidiacono, Federico II University, Naples The striking experience of the Australian psychologists tell us about the importance of the advocacy and lobbying power in the pursuit of political and scientific goals; the role of agency as a behavioural attitude in social settings. This article tell also how important is the accurate description of events, relations, and interactions in the dissemination of a certain experience. The authors are, in fact, very detailed in the description of all the contacts, the connections and the networking they went through. It goes without saying that all their actions and reports are giving trust to every sort of collective and participatory political involvement.  Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Read more...	featured audio These audio interviews of Lynne Cohen, Ken Robinson and Heather Gridley provide some additional background information about the context, lessons learned, and what it meant to be involved in advocating for community psychology as an endorsement in Australian Psychology. Click on the "View all media" link below to access the interviews. Listen to the Audio View all media featured book review Surviving a tsunami: Dealing with disaster: Lessons from the Samoa tsunami 29.09.09 by Jowitt, A., Faasisila, J., & Dudley, W. Review Written by: Sharon Hakim The book reviewed, "Surviving a Tsunami: Dealing with Disaster," was written after the 2009 tsunami that hit the coast of Samoa (Western) and is intended as a community handbook.  It is informative, accessible, and does a great job of giving the reader a feel for Samoan culture. Although the authors do not identify as Community Psychologists, their work clearly builds on some of our shared principles: community strengths, respect for culture, and prevention.  Although readers of your journal may not live in areas at risk for tsunamis, the lessons learned and expressed in this book regarding disaster preparedness and resilience are valuable to all communities, wherever they may be located. Read more... View all...

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