Community Psychology and Public Policy: Research, Advocacy and Training in International Contexts

Abstract

We introduce a special issue on public policy research, advocacy, and training by community psychologists that grew out of the Fifth International Community Psychology Conference held in Fortaleza, Brazil. Two papers from Portugal propose changes in sex education policies in schools and communities to promote adolescents’ rights and drug abuse policies based on decriminalization of use and possession, risk and harm reduction, and health promotion. An article from Spain addresses transformative policies to reduce public health disparities for the Roma population in that country. Three contributions from Brazil examine a Landless Workers Movement popular education and agroforestry project to support children and adolescents’ rights and participation; another social movement to control public policy on youth and adult literacy and education; and racist environmental and natural resource policies that ignore the territorial rights of indigenous Amazonian populations. A paper from Chile describes the creation of a regular public forum to reduce stigma and promote human rights in community mental health care. Another paper examines the development and presents examples of social-community psychologists’ involvement in policy work in Puerto Rico, the process of training students for this endeavor and how to improve training. Finally, three articles cover recent trends in policy advocacy by community psychologists in the United States including its promotion and capacity building by the Society for Community Research and Action; using social media as a tool to enhance effectiveness of advocacy efforts; and an assessment of advocates’ and legislators’ capacity, knowledge, and perceptions of child injury prevention to inform policy change efforts. Introduction to the Special Issue This issue arose from a symposium entitled “Public Policy and Community Psychology: Methods of Training, Research and Practice in Different Global Regions” organized by the Public Policy Committee of the Society for Community Research and Action at the Fifth International Conference on Community Psychology in Fortaleza, Brazil. That session explored the challenges of increasing both the frequency and the impact of community psychologists’ policy work around the globe. It followed up on a similar symposium held at the prior International Conference in Barcelona, Spain in 2012, which led to a special issue of the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice (http://www.gjcpp.org/en/index.php?issue= 14) on international policy work (edited by Ken Maton). For this new issue we called for submissions on (1) training for policy work at any level: high school, college, graduate, adult volunteers, continuing education; (2) theory or research on policy issues or policy engagement; or (3) examples of advocacy practice or interventions for policy change. Accepted full articles appear in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, but all include an English abstract. While the focus is on community psychology policy work in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Puerto Rico, and the United States (U.S.), the policy targets vary from local to provincial to national to international. The collection of papers deals with the development of training and implementation Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice Volume 7, Issue 1S February 2016 Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, http://www.gjcpp.org/ Page 3 of policy research and advocacy by community psychologists, working with a wide variety of groups, including children, youth and adults. The papers also engage with diverse settings, from urban contexts to deprived urban peripheries and rural contexts, such as an agrarian reform settlement in Brazil. Additionally, there is a wide range of policy topics covered in this issue, including health, education, community development and the environment, and advocacy processes and capacity building more generally. Health-related projects include liberalizing drug policies and school and community-based sex education policies in Portugal, transformative policies to reduce public health disparities for Roma communities in Spain, and policy education and advocacy on child injury prevention in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The stigma of mental illness is a global struggle (as is inclusion of mental health as a fully implemented part of health plans and policies) and Chilean authors describe the creation of a regular public forum to reduce stigma and promote human rights in community mental health care. In addition to sex education, educational policies include a social movement to control public policy on youth and adult literacy and popular education among landless workers in Brazil. Community development and environmental policies include that same landless workers popular education project which also involves agroforestry and supports children and adolescents’ rights and participation; and another Brazilian paper critiquing racist environmental and natural resource policies that ignore the territorial rights of indigenous Amazonian populations. Contributions that focus more generally on developing the capacity and effectiveness of policy research and advocacy by community psychology students and professionals include how training for policy work has improved in recent years in Puerto Rico and the U.S. along with ideas for making further improvements in promotion and capacity building for political work, such as the use of social media as a tool to enhance effectiveness of advocacy efforts.