School and Youth Engagement

Mission

The mission of the School Engagement Interest Group is to promote interchange about the application of community psychological practice, research, and theory to P-16 schools and other community settings in an effort to promote well-being, empowerment, equity, collaboration, action, and systems change.

Leadership

Role	Name	Email
Co-Chair	Sara Stacy	Email
Co-Chair	Jennifer Renick	Email
Programming Coordinator	Ben Fisher	Email

Current Initiatives

The School and Youth Engagement Interest Group is excited to share “Statement on the effects of law enforcement in school settings”, our policy statement recently published in the American Journal of Community Psychology. This open-access policy paper can be found at the following link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajcp.12723

This project first emerged in 2020, in conversation with student activists who were advocating for the removal of school police in their district. It is our hope that this piece will be useful and usable to individuals and groups working to end school policing. To that end, we invite you to share this piece with individuals in your community! In an effort to track what audiences the statement has reached, we are collecting dissemination information via this form.

Additionally, we welcome any feedback you have about the statement or suggestions for helping it reach a broader audience. We are also excited to partner with others on this new phase of dissemination of the statement and are open to new collaborators in this endeavor. If you have recommendations on how to disseminate this position statement and/or are interested in getting involved with these efforts, please contact either of the School Engagement Interest Group co-chairs

Upcoming Meetings

The School & Youth Engagement Interest Group will meet on the third Tuesday of every month, 2-3pm EST. Please join us at an upcoming meeting on the SCRA Conference line:

2/18: 2-3pm EST

3/18: 2-3pm EST

4/15: 2-3pm EST

5/20: 2-3pm EST

We envision this (virtual) meeting space as serving two core goals:

1 – Fostering connections among community-based researchers and practitioners that work with young people in schools or other settings, including libraries, community organizations, social services, and beyond.

2 – Growing collective capacity among the group by sharing resources, discussing problems of practice, and brainstorming solutions that emerge as we navigate the joys and challenges of working in community.