Social Justice Through Collaborative Research and Action

What is Community Psychology?

Social justice. Action-oriented research. Global in nature. Influencing public policy. Working for empowerment. Multidisciplinary in focus. Celebrating culture. Preventing harm. Behavior in context. Social action. Supporting community strengths. Reducing oppression. Promoting well-being. Scientific inquiry. Honoring human rights. Respecting diversity.

Community psychology goes beyond an individual focus and integrates social, cultural, economic, political, environmental, and international influences to promote positive change, health, and empowerment at individual and systemic levels.

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Featured New Content

Disaggregating the Term AAPI for Nuanced Mental Health Research

Posted in: Marginalized Groups, Mental Health | Tags:
Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) is an umbrella term that includes fifty different ethnic groups speaking over one hundred languages. There is profound diversity and unique experiences among AAPIs including historical trauma and mental health care needs. Mental health research today addresses the AAPIs as a monolith and obscures the complex diversity of the […]

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PAR and Photovoice: Using a Decolonized Lens Working with Communities

Posted in: Anti-Racism, Blog | Tags:
Published in:
Given the ubiquitous polarizing gap that has been dividing and driving U.S. political affairs, we have an opportunity to use participatory approaches and listen to those most impacted in innovative ways. Aspects of Participatory Action Research (PAR) can be utilized to support engagement, organizing, and conversations around community issues.

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Resisting State Sanctioned Violence: A Toolkit for Community Organizers

Posted in: Coalition Building, Marginalized Groups | Tags:
Published in:
Marginalized communities have long persisted in the work toward liberation despite continued state-sanctioned violence (SSV). We created a toolkit for organizers, community members, allies, and mental health professionals who want to build individual and community resilience while resisting SSV. We aimed to support marginalized communities through making psychological literature accessible and relevant to community-based through […]

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Photograph of Sindhia Colburn

Beyond Diversity Statements: Necessary Considerations for Designing Health Equity Approaches

Posted in: Anti-Racism, Blog, Healthcare | Tags:
Published in:
What does “anti-racism” look like in healthcare? It is early intervention, affordable, integrated, trauma-informed, and strengths-based.

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Figure 1: considerations for pronoun circles based on student input and trans scholarship related to the practice, with quotations related to the experience described or references to further discussions of the topic.

Drawing on the Experiences of Trans Students to Inform Pronoun Disclosure in Higher Education Settings

Posted in: Blog, Marginalized Groups | Tags:
Published in:
How pronouns are addressed can seriously impact a student’s well-being. I provide some considerations for how an instructor or mentor might approach pronoun disclosure with the goal of increasing comfort and decreasing coercion, based on the experiences of six trans undergraduate students who advised these recommendations through qualitative interviews and text submissions, and my own […]

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Brief Report: Analyzing Radical Self-Care Origins and Community Self-Care Practice

Posted in: Marginalized Groups, Self Help | Tags:
Published in:
It seems very normalized for Black women to make ultimate sacrifices to personal health and wellness for the betterment of others. Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, breast cancer, cervical cancer, fibroid tumors, premature birth rates, sickle cell disease, sexually transmitted diseases, and mental health issues are killing Black women in the United States at disproportionate rates. […]

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Featured Research

Physical Space Impacts the Founding of Sexual Assault Cases

Posted in: Criminal Justice, Marginalized Groups | Tags:
Published in:
Physical space can affect police decisions in sexual assault cases. Communities with a greater number of Black, Latinx, and Asian residents, as well as wealthier communities, had higher rates of founding, but the effect was geographically uneven. Interventions addressing gender-based violence and systemic biases are needed so lower-resourced individuals or individuals part of minoritized groups […]

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Housing…A Human Right and Path to Well-Being and Empowerment

Posted in: Housing, Poverty and Socioeconomic Status | Tags:
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Shortcomings in public housing should be addressed to promote social participation and well-being. Findings from six different housing sites underline the importance of investing in better building materials, increased maintenance, and community organization to support public housing tenants’ participation.

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Using Policy to Advance Social Justice for Justice-Involved Youth

Posted in: Criminal Justice, Public Policy | Tags:
We can scale up prevention science through policy frameworks to improve lives. Policies can be used to improve social justice through more effective and preventative solutions for justice-involved youth.

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Fixes that Fail: Reducing Food Deserts, Poverty, Crime, and Intergenerational Incarceration

Posted in: Criminal Justice, Marginalized Groups, Poverty and Socioeconomic Status | Tags:
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A systems approach is needed to address the context roots underlying urban access to healthy food. The root problem stems back to systemic racism. Creating sustainable community wealth can address food deserts and upstream issues criminal justice.

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Photograph of Oona Smith

What is Active Transportation and Why?

Posted in: Marginalized Groups, Sense of Community | Tags:
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The healthy approach to transportation planning is to pay attention to the intersectionality of our transportation systems and specific desired outcomes: our community health; safety; access; livability, quality of life and quality of neighborhoods; environmental justice; and equity. Learn more about intersectionality and transportation planning!

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Using Existing Program Data to Assess the Health of Mentor/Mentee Relationships

Posted in: Children, Youth and Families | Tags:
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Data were collected from a large national sample of Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentors and mentees. Assessment data can provide a signal for those who may be at risk for terminating the program relationship early. Additional support can be offered in struggling dyads.

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