Thursday, March 31, 2016

There’s a price to be paid


by Nicole Freund
Doctoral student at Wichita State University

So sayeth Dr. Marc Edwards, someone known for challenging systems in the interest of helping communities in crisis. Most recently, Dr. Edwards has been recognized for blowing the whistle on the water infrastructure failure in Flint, MI. The Community Psychology Practice Blog is sharing an interview Dr. Edwards gave regarding both Flint as well as the important role of science in protecting people and communities.

While Edwards has degrees in biophysics and engineering, he endorses many values that correspond to the practice of community psychology. Identifying as a scientist generally, he notes in the interview shared here, “Science should be about pursuing the truth and helping people. If you’re doing it for any other reason, you really ought to question your motives.” The discipline of community psychology espouses this very concept, and, as many practitioners know all too well, the path to public good can be . . . bumpy. Dr. Edwards argues that this path is made even more dangerous by the ways academia incentivizes its faculty to refrain from dissention when funders (especially governmental funders) might be called into question. The desire to fund good work can sometimes overshadow the warning that something is wrong, especially when those funding relationships might evaporate with one disagreement or media interview.

Everything in life has a price: emotional, financial, temporal. How does this value of give and take get reflected in our science? Do our motivations mirror the intention to do good despite the funding trap that leads to silence when warnings should be shouted? Dr. Edwards argues that “the systems built to support scientists do not reward moral courage and that the university pipeline contains toxins of its own — which, if ignored, will corrode public faith in science.” That corrosion can be seen in a wide range of domains from the environment, to education, to homelessness, to substance abuse treatment. Historical abuse of vulnerable populations and communities of color continue and compound distrust as more and more scientists are silenced in the name of expediency. How do we fund good programs and the scientific evaluations of those programs without losing our way when unanticipated results may not be favorable?




Interview in full here: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Water-Next-Time-Professor/235136/


Friday, March 25, 2016

Latest issue of the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice





Greetings!
We are pleased to share with you the latest issue of the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice.

A key set of community psychology practice competencies directly or indirectly relate to policy. If community psychology sets our goals to create systemic community change then policy change is a critical and often under-reported component of our work. In this special issue we are fortunate to read about diverse efforts from across the globe related to policy. I want to thank the special issue editors (Douglas D. Perkins, Manuel García-Ramírez, Isabel Menezes, Irma Serrano-García, and Melissa Strompolis (USA, Spain, Portugal, Puerto Rico), contributors, and reviewers for assembling a thoughtful international collection of articles highlighting the experiences and insights from community psychologists focusing on policy. This is an especially rich collection of writings. There is much to learn from these articles and also suggest additional attention to this topic.

In addition, in a previous GJCPP issue I mentioned that I was interested in GJCPP helping make connections on issues, ideas, and topics. I’m happy to say we have a provocative launch to our opinion pieces in attempt to create conversation and connections with our readers. Tom Wolff has provided a Guest Editorial entitled: Ten Places Where Collective Impact Gets It Wrong. While the views in it do not necessarily represent the views of GJCPP, I do hope it will  spur an active conversation on the topic. We’ve provided several mechanisms where comments, counterpoints, examples/experiences, etc can be shared related to Collective Impact via GJCPP.  You can comment directly under the article, email editor@gjcpp.org, or comment on this post on our Facebook page. I’d encourage you and your colleagues to join the conversation.

We will learn from this attempt to create conversation and connection so that future issues of GJCPP can do even more.

Please enjoy this special issue: www.gjcpp.org

Take care,

Scott Wituk
Editor, Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice
Executive Director
Community Engagement Institute
Wichita State University
editor@gjcpp.org
www.gjcpp.org