Call for Nominations: Distinguished Contribution to Practice in Community Psychology

[Announcement from SCRA-L]

Do you know someone who has made distinguished contributions to the Practice of Community Psychology? Please consider nominating that person for the SCRA award detailed below! Please note that only the person nominating should be a SCRA member, but that the nominee does not necessarily need to be a current SCRA member.

Award for Distinguished Contribution to Practice in Community Psychology

The Award for Distinguished Contributions to Practice in Community Psychology is presented annually to an individual whose career of high quality and innovative applications of psychological principles has demonstrated positive impact on, or significant illumination of the ecology of, communities or community settings, and has significantly benefited the practice of community psychology. The person receiving this award will have demonstrated innovation and leadership in one or more of the following roles: community service provider or manager/ administrator of service programs; trainer or manager of training programs for service providers; developer and/or implementer of public policy; developer and/or implementer of interventions in the media (including cyberspace) to promote community psychology goals and priorities; developer, implementer, and/or evaluator of ongoing preventive/service programs in community settings; or other innovative roles.

Criteria for the award include the following. The first criterion applies in all cases; one or more of the remaining criteria must be present:

1.   Engaged at least 75% time, for a minimum of 10 years, in settings such as government, business or industry, community or human service programs, in the practice of high quality and innovative applications of psychological principles that have significantly benefited the practice of community psychology; past winners cannot be nominated;

2.   Demonstrated positive impact on the natural ecology of community life resulting from the application of psychological principles;

3.   Challenged the status quo or prevailing conceptual models and applied methods; and

4.   Demonstrated personal success in exercising leadership based on applied practice.

Nominations Deadline: Initial nominations should be sent to the SCRA Administrative Director, Victoria Scott, at vscott@scra27.org by December 1, 2014.

Nominations should include:

1.     The name and contact information of the nominee.

2.     A statement, which can be from the nominee, that documents clearly specify his or her eligibility for this award by describing how he or she “engaged at least 75% of the time, for a minimum of 10 years, in settings such as government, business or industry, community or human service programs, in the practice of high quality and innovative applications of psychological principles that have significantly benefited the practice of community psychology.” This statement can consist of a brief list of the years, the settings, and the activities, but it should be sufficiently detailed so that there is no doubt about the eligibility.

3.     A vita or summary of accomplishments that is no longer than 6 single-spaced pages.

4. A letter of recommendation that is no longer than 4 typed double-spaced pages.
5. One work sample may be submitted in PDF format so that it can be shared with all committee members. This work sample may be submitted in the language of the nominee’s choice.
6. Those nominees whose work is primarily in a non-English language or context may submit a second letter of recommendation that can clarify the work sample or further inform the committee about the nature of the nominee’s contribution.

Note: Committee members are free to seek out additional information about nominees, and a second letter may be helpful if a candidate’s body of work may not be accessible to many committee members because of language differences or the nature of the work not being represented in typical publication or internet outlets. Submitting a second letter is at the discretion or the nominator/nominee.

A plaque will be presented to the award recipient at an SCRA Biennial or APA conference (in non-Biennial years).  During this time, the recipient will also provide an address. In addition, the award recipient will have the option to publish his/her address in the AJCP. 

More information and past award recipients are available on the SCRA website http://www.scra27.org/members1/member-awards/. 

Regards,

Nellie Tran

SCRA Member-at-Large

Awards Committee Chair

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Nellie Tran

Assistant Professor

University of Massachusetts Lowell