Interest Groups
The Society of Community Research and Action strongly encourages members and student members to form Interest Groups with colleagues who share a lively interest in a particular issue. The purpose of Interest Groups is to provide a visible yet informal organizational vehicle for members to pursue shared community interests.
Interest Groups form based on grassroots interest expressed by Society members. They come into existence, flourish, and decline primarily as a function of this grassroots interest and initiative. Interest Groups are recognized through a listing in The Community Psychologist, a small budget allocation from the SCRA Executive Committee, and inclusion of meeting announcements in the Biennial and APA Convention Programs. Interest Groups are invited to contribute regularly to TCP.
Interest Groups have found diverse ways to pursue their concerns. Special issues of The Community Psychologist, awards for members, development of a mentoring program, surveys, conference presentations, open meetings, member interest inventories and directories, and informal networking all have resulted from interest group efforts. Interest Groups provide a community within the larger Society for those with common concerns.
Current Interest Groups
Aging
The Aging interest group focuses on the productive role of aging in the community and the prevention of mental health problems in the elderly.
Contact: Andrew J. Hostetler, Chair
Aging Interest Group Listserv
If you would like to join the Aging Interest Group listserv just email jeanhill@scra27.org and request to be added to the group.
Children, Youth, and Families
The Children, Youth, and Families interest group facilitates the interests of child and adolescent development in high risk contexts, especially the effect of urban poverty and community structures on child and family development.
Contact Michelle Ronayne , Chair
Community Health
To enhance communication and collaboration among community psychologists with interests in health promotion, disease prevention, and health care service delivery.
Contact: Darcy Freedman, Co-Chair, Venoncia Baté-Ambrus, Co-Chair
Community Psychology Practice in Undergraduate Settings
The Community Psychology Practice in Undergraduate Settings interest group convenes individuals who identify as undergraduate-focused practitioners to share resources, collaborate, and network to identify unique challenges and opportunities among those interested in the scholarship of community psychology teaching and learning as well as research with undergraduates.
Contact: Lauren Lichty, Co-Chair Jennifer Wallin-Ruschman
Community Psychology Practice in Undergraduate Settings Interest Group Listserv
If you would like to join the Undergraduate Settings Interest Group listserv just email jeanhill@scra27.org and request to be added to the group.
Criminal Justice
The Criminal Justice Interest group provides a forum to facilitate discussion, collaboration and action among community psychologists who have broad interests in research, practice and policy related to the criminal justice system.
Contact: Kristy Shockley Chair
Criminal Justice Interest Group Listserv
If you would like to join the Criminal Justice listserv just email jeanhill@scra27.org and request to be added to the group.
Disability
To promote understanding of the depth and diversity of disability issues in the community that are ready for research and action; to influence community psychologists’ involvement in policy and practices that enhance self-determination, personal choice, and full inclusion in the community for people with disabilities; to enhance the synergy and complementarity between community psychology and the disabled community.
Contact: Naoko Yura Yasui, Co-chair and Delphine Labbé
Disability Interest Group Listserv
We hope that many of you will join us and help create a vibrant community of disability scholars and activists within the SCRA.
To sign up for the listserv,
1. Send an email to: listserv@lists.apa.org with the following message in the body of the email (please be sure to remove any other text, including signatures): SubscribeSCRA-DIG
Early Career
To support SCRA members who have been working as a community psychology researcher; practitioner; activist; or teacher or professor; or in a related field, for no more than seven years. The important aims of this group are to: (1) promote the concerns, interests, and issues unique to early career individuals within SCRA; (2) promote opportunities for early career scholars to make contributions to or hold leadership positions within the SCRA community; and (3) promote formalized opportunities for recognition of professional accomplishments by early career SCRA members.
Contact:
Mera Boulus, Co-Chair and Latriece Clarke
Early Career Listserv
To subscribe the Early Career Interest Group email group just send an email to jeanhill@scra27.org
Environment and Justice
To promote research, teaching, and action related to global climate change and environmental degradation, with a focus on environmental justice, particularly how environmental change affects and often perpetuates social inequality.
Contact: Allison Eady, Co-Chair and Lena Bain, Co-Chair
Immigrant Justice
To identify ways in which community psychologists could assist and support new immigrant and refugees at the local level, to educate SCRA members about opportunities to collaborate with local agencies/organizations in support of immigrants and refugees, to provide information and tools that could be shared with local agencies/organizations to help immigrants and refugees, to advocate for the rights of immigrants and refugees at the national and international levels, and to work toward permanent protection, dignity, and respect for the migrant communities around the world.
Contact: Kevin Ferreira van Leer, Co-Chair and Sara Buckingham, Co-Chair
Indigenous
To support members who are conducting Indigenous research by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, literature and experience. The interest group aims to utilize combined resources more effectively in order to raise public awareness of the plight of Indigenous people and address the social justice issues they face in oppressive dominant societies.
Contact: Nathaniel Mohatt, Co-Chair and William Hartman, Co-Chair
Indigenous Interest Group Listserv
If you would like to join the Indigenous Interest Group listserv just email jeanhill@scra27.org and request to be added to the group
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Concerns
To increase awareness of the need for community research and action related to issues that impact LGBT people; and serve as a mechanism for communication, collaboration, and support among community psychologists who are either interested in research/service/policy related to LGBT people and communities, and/or who identify as LGBT.
Contact: Corey Flanders, Co-Chair and Debbie Ojeda, Co-Chair
LGBT Interest Group Listserv
If you would like to join the LGBT Interest Group listserv just email jeanhill@scra27.org and request to be added to the group.
Organization Studies
The Organization Studies interest group is a community of scholars who are interested in community psychology themes (e.g., empowerment, ecological analysis, prevention, sense of community) in organizational contexts, and in importing organization studies concepts, methods, models, and theories into community psychology.
Contact: Neil Boyd, Co-Chair and Kimberly Bess, Co-Chair
To sign up for the listserv, send an email to: SCRA-L-ORGS-request@LISTS.APA.ORG
Prevention and Promotion
To enhance the development of prevention and promotion research, foster active dialogue about critical conceptual and methodological action and implementation issues, and promote the rapid dissemination and discussion of new developments and findings in the field.
Contact: Toshi Sasao, Susana Helm, and Kayla DeCant, Co-Chairs
Rural
To promote awareness of rural issues by developing communications networks, and by publishing and providing timely and accurate material for graduate training programs.
Contact: Melissa Cianfrini and Suzanne Phillips, Co-Chairs
Rural Interest Group Listserv
If you would like to join the Rural Interest Group listserv just email jeanhill@scra27.org and request to be added to the group
School Intervention
To promote interchange about the theories, methods, knowledge base, and setting factors pertaining to prevention and health promotion programs in schools; to discuss the role of community psychology interventions in the context of current issues facing schools and education.
Contact: Joni Splett, Co-Chair and Melissa Maras, Co-Chair
Self-Help & Mutual Support
To promote research and action related to self-help/mutual support groups and related initiatives; to provide a forum for interested researchers, self-helpers, and service providers to communicate and network.
Contact: Ron Harvey, Chair
Self-Help Interest Group Listserv
If you would like to join the Self-Help and Mutual Support Interest Group listserv just email jeanhill@scra27.org and request to be added to the group
Transformative Change in Community Mental Health
We seek to establish an alternative paradigm to the promotion of mental health based in community settings upon the values of citizenship, recovery, empowerment, inclusion, and social justice. Our work includes the articulation of models, identification of promising practices, and research to demonstrate the value of this alternative paradigm. Through a SCRA interest group, we seek to create an international network that can support the development of this paradigm and transformative change in mental health systems and communities that includes partnerships with community leaders, consumers/survivors/users, mental health professionals, social and biomedical scientists. Through such a network, we aim to find ways to be a resource groups, individuals, and communities that are interested in pursuing alternative paradigms for the promotion of mental health in community settings.
Contact: Bret Kloos, Chair
Initiating an Interest Group
To initiate an interest group, the group must submit the following information to the Executive Committee:
- A proposal indicating the purpose and rationale for the group;
- A list of at least 25 Society members who want such a group to form and agree to be active participants; and
- The names, addresses, phone numbers and fax numbers of at least two contact persons who are willing to be appointed as Chair and Chair-Elect.
The Executive Committee will typically consider these requests at its next business meeting (Midwinter or August). Individuals who wish to start an Interest Group are welcome to contact the President, other Executive Committee members, and/or current Interest Groups Chairs for further information and support.