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The Society for Community Research and Action (Division 27 of the American Psychological Association) invites you to the 11th Biennial Conference of the Society for Community Research and Action, hosted by the University of La Verne at the Hilton Hotel in Pasadena, California from June 7 - 10, 2007.
The 11th Biennial Conference of the Society for Community Research and Action provides a forum for presentations of exciting new work from professionals and community members. Proposals related to Policy, Social Justice, and Practice should reflect the theme of the Biennial by addressing the implications of Community and Culture. Culture, often thought of in terms of race and ethnicity, is more broadly defined to encompass other shared meanings, for example, in linguistic, gender, generation, sexual orientation, socioeconomic, organizational, geographical, and activity groups.
While proposals pertaining to the overall conference theme will be given priority, we invite submissions that represent all areas of community research and action, including new contributions to theory, methodology, and practice; reflections about ethics; and contributions toward the implementation and dissemination of innovative programs.
Program presentations are welcome on a range of topics, including any of the following: human diversity and social ecology; multi-cultural approaches; the prevention of problems in living; the promotion of competence and health; empowerment of historically disenfranchised groups; the evaluation of community-based programs and services; collective social action; self and mutual help; community-based interventions, advocacy, consultation, and training; interdisciplinary collaboration; international developments and contributions; partnerships with community groups; the interactions of groups in the larger community; and institutional and organizational change.
A major goal of the conference is to foster constructive discussion, interaction, creativity, and the exchange of ideas involving community research and action in a variety of cultural contexts. Program proposals that emphasize active interaction among presenters and the audience, and integration of diverse perspectives, especially cultural perspectives, are particularly encouraged. The SCRA Listserv can be used to develop collaborative proposals. Collaborative proposals with members from other organizations, such as the IACCP, are most welcome. A list of possible organizations with liaisons to contact will be posted on the SCRA Listserv.
To a degree unimaginable earlier, those in community research and action today lobby the government, testify in court, develop demonstration programs, and talk to the media about a wide range of issues. Efforts by those in community research and action to create change beyond the individual and the family often mesh with broader efforts to affect governmental decisions at the national level. Much of this advocacy is guided by the philosophy that public policy should be based on available scientific knowledge, and that psychological research can contribute to the formulation of sound public policy to address specific social problems and improve human welfare.
By operating from an explicit value-base and a social ethic rooted in moral values, professionals in community research and action serve to advocate, educate, and act to change current public policy structures toward becoming more emancipatory in nature. Not content to simply conduct research and practice psychology, they live the values they espouse and see community research and action not just as an academic discipline or method of healing, but as a force for change and as a means of providing understanding of the role everyone plays in the promotion and maintenance of social well being. In public policy, community and culture are intertwined, so we anticipate proposals on the implications of cultural research for public policy.
Social justice provides the foundation for a healthy community. It grows out of our sense that each person - each created being - has value. Only as we recognize the value and dignity of each person can we build a healthy community. To help the process along we develop attitudes of respect for one another. We also shape policies and patterns of behavior to protect and enhance the worth of each person. We do this by building governmental and economic structures, educational and religious institutions, and all the other systems that provide for health and social welfare. This justice is a process, a struggle in which we can be engaged through all the pain and all the joy. Using a broad framework, community research and action can offer pragmatic scrutiny into everyday life, seeking to understand the possibilities for intergroup relations. We anticipate that submissions will be theoretically and methodologically diverse, and show the importance of culture in understanding and addressing issues of social justice.
The purpose of the practice of community research and action is 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 individual change. Practice includes evaluating, preventing, ameliorating, modifying, or remediating systems through improving relationships among communities divided in terms of historical, colonial, racial, ethnic, political, economic, gender, sexual orientation and other boundaries, as well as promoting health, social change, and justice. In community practice the major epistemological break with other forms of practice in psychology is to consider the individual in the context of social and cultural experience, sometimes for solutions, while at the same time viewing people as agentic, purposeful beings who have the potential to influence and change their situations. Taking an ecological perspective, wherein the 'person-in-context' (where context is seen as being multi-level) is the unit of analysis and change, has become a guiding principle of community research and action.
To achieve these goals, alliances within and outside the discipline must be formed, wherein action, research, and theory are inseparable and intertwined in complex ways, and immersed in the lives of people who are marginalized, oppressed, and dispossessed. Most community praxis is enhanced by blurring the boundaries among psychology, anthropology, economics, sociology, history, cultural studies, etc. Community practitioners work in partnership with people in the communities they serve, particularly with those who are marginalized, oppressed, and dispossessed, to challenge the status quo and achieve social change, with an emphasis on value based, participatory work not wedded to any particular orthodoxy of method. Proposals using cultural knowledge and methods to illustrate effective community practice are particularly encouraged.
In addition, proposals for Community Practice Tool Poster Sessions are invited. At these poster sessions, participants will share one or more specific tools that are used in their community practice that will be of benefit to others in their practice. This could include favorite community assessment tools, coalition satisfaction surveys, logic models/roadmaps for strategic planning, neighborhood needs and assets assessments, organizational assessments, etc. The presenter could share the tool, examples of actual uses, and case stories.
Psychology Department
University of La Verne
1950 Third Street
La Verne, CA 91750
909-593-3511 (voice)
909-392-2745 (fax)
Email: scra_host@ulv.edu__
Associate Research Psychologist
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
Center for Community Health
10920 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 350
Los Angeles, CA 90024-6521
310-794-8278/310-794-3773 (voice)
310-794-8297 (fax)_
Email: nmilburn@mednet.ucla.edu
Advising and Fieldwork Coordinator
Psychology Department
University of La Verne
1950 Third Street
La Verne, CA 91750
909-593-3511 (voice)
909-392-2745 (fax)
Email: drichard@ulv.edu
The conference will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Pasadena, CA.
The conference will begin on Thursday afternoon and conclude on Sunday afternoon. Conference registration includes admission to all sessions, continental breakfast, lunch on the full conference days (Friday and Saturday), and a dinner on Saturday night.
Lodging: Detailed information on accommodations may be found on the conference website. (Under Construction - Coming Soon!)
Conference Fees: Registration fee information will be available on our website soon.
Further details about conference registration, including travel arrangements and information about conference accessibility, will be provided on the web site and in the Preliminary Conference Program to be mailed in March 2005.
All presenters must register for the conference and pay registration fees.
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