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Structural racism contributes to homelessness in the United States, as evidenced by the stark racial disparities in who experiences it. This paper reviews research at the intersections of race and homelessness to advance efforts to understand and address racial inequities. Part 1 offers a synthesis of homelessness research from the 1980s to 2015, where several scholars examined the role of race and racism despite mainstream efforts to present the issue as race‐neutral. Part 2 presents the results of a systematic scoping review of research at the intersections of race and homelessness from 2016 to 2021. The 90 articles included demonstrate a growing, multidisciplinary body of literature that documents how needs and trajectories of people experiencing homelessness differ by race, examines how the racialized structuring of society contributes to homelessness risk, and explores how programs, policies, and grassroots action can address inequities. In addition to charting findings and implications, included studies are appraised against research principles developed by Critical Race Theory scholars, mapping the potential of existing research on race and homelessness to challenge racism. Highlights: Research has begun to pay more attention to the role of racism in driving homelessness.I conducted a scoping review to map the methods and findings of recent US‐based research.Recent studies include more qualitative methods; participants describe how race impacts experiences.Research is beginning to examine how homeless services and policies can reduce disparities.Applying critical theoretical frameworks may improve future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education institutions present unique settings in which identities and life paths are distinctively shaped. While at their best universities should serve as empowering settings that support their members to grow and develop, to raise awareness of injustice, and to catalyze change, too often systems of higher education in the United States serve to marginalize Indigenous cultures and promote assimilation to White, Euro‐American cultures. Counterspaces offer an important response, spaces developed by and for people experiencing oppression that allow for solidarity‐building, social support, healing, resource attainment, skill‐building, resistance, counter‐storytelling, and ideally, empowerment. The Alaska Native (AN) Cultural Identity Project (CIP) is based at an urban U.S.‐based university and was rolled out during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Developed from the best available scientific and practice literature, local data from AN students, and traditional wisdom from Elders, CIP incorporated storytelling, experiential learning, connection, exploration, and sharing of identity and cultural strengths with the aim of helping AN students understand who they are and who they are becoming. In all, 44 students, 5 Elders, and 3 additional staff participated in the space. In this paper, we sought to understand how CIP was experienced by these unique members who co‐created and engaged in this space through 10 focus groups with 36 of the CIP members. We found that the counterspace promoted a sense of community, served as an empowering setting, and set the stage for empowering actions and ripple effects beyond its impact on individuals. Highlights: Indigenous students may benefit from Elder‐led counterspaces in university settings.Counterspaces facilitate empowerment by being empowering settings and fostering sense of community.The structure of a counterspace is likely more important than its content or curriculum.It is possible for a counterspace to exist in a virtual, online space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black women in the United States continue to be disproportionately affected by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic. HIV/AIDS activism among Black women for Black women may be one solution to reduce the disparate rates of HIV/AIDS among Black women. However, little is known about what processes and experiences prompt Black women to participate in HIV/AIDS activism. In this paper, I aim to identify mechanisms of empowerment for Black women to engage in HIV/AIDS activism. I draw upon empowerment theory as a theoretical framework to guide analysis of the literature and to offer a strengths‐based perspective on Black women's efforts to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. An extensive literature search was conducted to identify studies of Black women's participation in HIV/AIDS activism. The search yielded 11 studies that were included for review. Synthesis of the literature indicated the following analytic themes as mechanisms of empowerment for Black women to participate in HIV/AIDS activism: relationships and interactions with others, critical awareness, self‐reflection, and spirituality. Article limitations, suggestions for future research, and implications for social change are also discussed. Overall, findings from this study suggest that there are unique mechanisms that facilitate psychological empowerment and prompt Black women's entry into HIV/AIDS activism. Highlights: A comprehensive review of 11 articles on Black women's participation in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) activism. Explores how Black women become psychologically empowered to become HIV/AIDS activists. Many mechanisms of empowerment for Black women engaged in HIV/AIDS activism are communal. Emphasizes psychological empowerment as not only an intrapsychic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, college has often served as an incubator for social change agents in the form of student activism and participation in broader social movements. Historically Black colleges and university (HBCUs) have played a pivotal role in social justice movements since their inception with the most notable example being the central role of HBCUs in the Civil Rights Movement. The role of HBCUs in cultivating exemplary leaders provides invaluable examples and frameworks for tackling the dual pandemics of COVID‐19 and the latest racial reckoning. The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of how an all‐male HBCU contributes to the development of moral leadership and how that tradition has evolved with the current dual pandemics. We provide a historical overview of Morehouse's leadership models and provide a case study from students currently enrolled at Morehouse College, the only all‐male, historically Black college in the United States. Student participants described how leadership has evolved from previous generations, the impact of social media, and what it means to be a moral leader and how the HBCU tradition, shapes leadership. Highlights: Moral leadership is a cornerstone of many historically Black colleges and universities.The dual pandemics of COVID‐19 and the racial reckoning fueled public service amongst students.In the United States, college has often served as an incubator for social change agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community‐based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to promoting justice focus on working from the ground up and giving a voice to marginalized communities regarding their concerns, potential solutions, and how to address social justice issues that matter to them. The pursuit of justice is often related to efforts to attain personal as well as collective well‐being. In this paper, we illustrate three exemplars of community psychologists' efforts to promote justice. Within each case study, we discuss the social and community context and examine how the researchers built partnerships and solidarity, developed ways of doing, and approached challenges and solutions. First, we present an example to promote economic justice through an entrepreneurship initiative developed in collaboration with young Black youth with disabilities in the United States. The second case illustrates an effort to promote reproductive justice in collaboration with Roma women and girls in Spain. The third exemplar depicts the use of life stories as a method to raise the voices of displaced, marginalized indigenous women in Peru. Based on these three case studies, we present a synthesis model of social justice. We also discuss implications for future studies emphasizing the importance of engaging community participants in research meaningful ways, developing sustainable partnerships, and decolonizing research. Highlights: Promoting justice requires ongoing reflective dialogue and deconstruction of a colonial approach.Acting on power imbalances, giving voice to people, and advocating for change promote social justice.Community‐based participatory research is the appropriate approach to elevate the voices of those affected by oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young children's experience of trauma is associated with a wide range of adverse events and circumstances, including abuse and neglect, domestic violence, loss of a parent, and community violence. Policymakers and practitioners are increasingly aware that trauma during the first few years of life is especially widespread, and there is growing interest in new ways to support these young children and their families. Many young children who experience trauma attend early care and education (ECE) programs, and these settings offer important opportunities to promote their well‐being. This paper examines strategies currently being implemented in ECE to address early childhood trauma. The paper first examines research on how trauma affects young children's development, ECE environments, and society. We then describe the unique needs of young, traumatized children and features of trauma‐informed care that can address their needs, along with emerging interventions and supports that can be incorporated into or linked with ECE settings as part of a trauma‐informed approach. We conclude with a discussion of future directions for ECE and trauma research, policy, and practice, bearing in mind both the promise of new approaches and a limited evidence base to date. Highlights: Trauma is most common in early childhood, affecting between half and two‐thirds of all children in the United States.Early care and education (ECE) serves a large number of traumatized children and can offer critical supports to promote the recovery and well‐being of young children and their families.This article provides examples of trauma‐informed initiatives and practices currently in use in ECE and describes their level of evidence.Recommendations for future research, policy, and practice include additional research to expand the limited evidence base and utilization of existing policies to promote trauma‐informed care in ECE settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe the assessment and planning phase of the Thrive community‐based initiative to reduce violence and address other determinants of health in a community in the Southwestern United States. Using community‐based participatory research (CBPR) and an implementation science framework, we engaged residents and other key stakeholders as equal partners in the assessment and planning process. The Thrive assessment and planning phase involved collaboration among researchers, residents, law enforcement, nonprofit agencies, public health, local government, and other cross‐sector partners. We used implementation science in order to examine the barriers and facilitators to addressing community health and safety, to assess the nature and scope of health and safety issues, to review existing solutions, to assess the acceptability and necessary adaptations of selected interventions, and to assess feasibility and sustainability of the initiative. Through interviews, focus groups, analysis of crime incident data, geomapping, and direct observations, our findings highlighted the presence of an open‐air drug market, the high‐stress nature of the community, concern for the lack of opportunities for youth, the lack of trust between residents and law enforcement, and a need to address the built environment to promote safety and well‐being. Highlights: This study highlights the utility of CBPR and implementation science for crime/violence prevention.Through cross‐sector partnerships, the nature and scope of community crime/violence were assessed.Findings highlighted an active drug market, high‐stress, concern for youth, and lack of trust in police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative systematic review examined the context‐specific factors that influence the implementation of youth participatory action research (YPAR) projects in high schools within the United States. Thematic synthesis was conducted to identify and analyze the YPAR implementation factors that were present in 38 peer‐reviewed studies. Results indicate the following two analytic themes concerning YPAR implementation in high schools: (a) pedagogical strategies and (b) stakeholder dynamics and needs. The themes provide support for existing ecological frameworks of implementation factors and demonstrate that adult researchers' project‐specific decisions are nested within educational power structures. This paper will discuss the implications of these YPAR implementation themes in executing YPAR projects in high schools. Highlights: Review of 38 studies of YPAR in U.S. high schools and factors that affect implementation.Two analytic themes emerged: pedagogical strategies, and stakeholder dynamics and needs.Adult researchers make pedagogy choices related to time, course, curriculum, and youth needs.Stakeholder dynamics and needs in schools create added power dynamics influencing implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, the demand for child mental health services is increasing, while the supply is limited by workforce shortages. These shortages are unlikely to be corrected without significant structural changes in how mental health services are provided. One strategy for bridging this gap is task‐shifting, defined as a process by which services that are typically delivered by professionals are moved to individuals with less extensive qualifications or training. Although task‐shifting can increase the size of the workforce, there are challenges related to training new workers. In this paper, we propose Just‐In‐Time Training (JITT) as one strategy for improving task‐shifting efforts. We define JITT as on‐demand training experiences that only include what is necessary, when it is necessary, to promote competent service delivery. We offer a proof of concept from our own work shifting counseling and academic support tasks from school mental health professionals to pre‐baccalaureate mentors, citing lessons learned during our iterative process of JITT development. We conclude with a series of key considerations for scaling up the pairing of task‐shifting and JITT, including expanding the science of JITT and anticipating how task‐shifting and JITT would work within the context of dynamic mental health service systems. Highlights: Task‐shifting refers to redistributing tasks from professionals to workers who have less training.Task‐shifting may be a key strategy in expanding child services in low resource communities.Just‐in‐Time Training (JITT) refers to efficient, on‐demand training experiences.JITT may strengthen task‐shifting efforts.Task‐shifting and JITT involve unique ethical considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: We outline the understudied challenges and needs of the Youth Residential Facility (YRF) workforce.Integrating trauma‐informed care and settings theory, we describe YRFs as trauma‐organized settings.We critique the person‐mediated emphasis of current trauma‐informed approaches.We make recommendations to shift problematic YRF regularities by focusing on safety, relationships, and YRF workforce well‐being. Each year approximately 48,000 youth are incarcerated in residential placement facilities (YRFs) in the United States. The limited existing literature addressing the workforce in these settings paints a complicated picture. The YRF workforce is highly motivated to work with legal system involved youth. However, YRF staff report high rates of burnout, job fatigue, and work‐related stress. The current paper proposes solutions to persistent problems faced by staff in these settings by integrating literature from criminology, organizational psychology, trauma‐informed care, and community psychology. In doing so, we highlight previously overlooked aspects of intervention for trauma‐organized settings and respond to recent calls for community psychologists to take a more active role in the adaptation of trauma‐informed care in community settings. We conclude by advancing three recommendations, drawn from setting‐level theory and inspired by the principles of trauma‐informed care, to transform YRFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports results of mixed methods, population survey of housing instability, and homelessness. Child welfare personnel conducted the Quick Risks and Assets for Family Triage ( QRAFT), a three-question screening tool intended to identify housing instability and homelessness. The QRAFT requires users to assess family housing history, current housing arrangement, and current housing condition, on a four-point scale from 'asset/not a risk' to 'severe risk.' The QRAFT was completed among 6828 families undergoing new child maltreatment investigations. Approximately 5.4% of families demonstrated significant to severe housing problems; approximately one-third exhibited moderate housing risk. Housing problems and homelessness were significantly associated with the outcome of child welfare investigations; among families with substantiated child welfare determinations, 21% demonstrated significant to severe housing risk, a significantly higher proportion than among families where the investigation outcome was unsubstantiated or differential response (i.e., voluntary services). Of significant to severe housing risk families, 15.7% later met eligibility criteria for a supportive housing intervention, suggesting that housing concerns combined with substantial parent and child functional difficulties. Qualitative data indicated the QRAFT was perceived as easy to administer, effective as a screening tool, and useful to 'apply the housing lens' early in child welfare involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inadequate housing and homelessness represent significant barriers to family stability and child development. An accumulating body of evidence documents the relatively high risk of family separation among families experiencing housing instability and homelessness, the extent of housing problems experienced by families involved in the child welfare system, and the disproportionately high rates of homelessness among youth aging out of foster care. Vulnerable youth and families interact frequently with various social service programs intended to mitigate multifaceted and multilevel risks, however, systems efforts and resources are rarely coordinated and results to date are mixed. We introduce 13 papers that are part of a burgeoning, increasingly sophisticated body of scholarship that inform coordinated responses to inadequate housing experienced by families involved in child welfare and related interventions. We note emergent themes and state a pressing need for research that accounts for ecological and contextual influences, examines the differential impact of housing and service interventions, identifies critical ingredients of effective housing and service interventions, and positions for scale-up. We distill findings into a set of observations and recommendations that align with best intentions to improve quality of life and promote well being among some of society's most vulnerable individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family break-up is common in families experiencing homelessness. This paper examines the extent of separations of children from parents and of partners from each other and whether housing and service interventions reduced separations and their precursors among 1,857 families across 12 sites who participated in the Family Options Study. Families in shelters were randomized to offers of one of three interventions: permanent housing subsidies that reduce expenditures for rent to 30% of families' income, temporary rapid re-housing subsidies with some services directed at housing and employment, and transitional housing in supervised facilities with extensive psychosocial services. Each group was compared to usual care families who were eligible for that intervention but received no special offer. Twenty months later, permanent housing subsidies almost halved rates of child separation and more than halved rates of foster care placements; the other interventions did not affect separations significantly. Predictors of separation were primarily homelessness and drug abuse (all comparisons), and alcohol dependence (one comparison). Although housing subsidies reduced homelessness, alcohol dependence, intimate partner violence, and economic stressors, the last three variables had no association with child separations in the subsidy comparison; thus subsidies had indirect effects via reductions in homelessness. No intervention reduced partner separations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translating evidence-based HIV/STD prevention interventions and research findings into applicable HIV prevention practice has become an important challenge for the fields of community psychology and public health due to evidence-based interventions and evidence-based practice being given higher priority and endorsement by federal, state, and local health department funders. The Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) for Dissemination and Implementation and the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) Research-to-Practice model both address this challenge. The DHAP model and the ISF are each presented with a brief history and an introduction of their features from synthesis of research findings through translation into intervention materials to implementation by prevention providers. This paper describes why the ISF and the DHAP model were developed and the similarities and differences between them. Specific examples of the use of the models to translate research to practice and the subsequent implications for support of each model are provided. The paper concludes that the ISF and the DHAP model are truly complementary with some unique differences, while both contribute substantially to addressing the gap between identifying effective programs and ensuring their widespread adoption in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communities that undertake systems change in accordance with the system of care philosophy commit to creating new systems entities for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance. These new entities are values-based, voluntary, and cross-agency alliances that include formal child-serving entities, youth, and families. Describing the scope and intent of one such implementation of systems of care, a mental health administrator commented, 'If we're going to change things, it has to be systemic' (B. Baxter, personal communication, December 2, 2005). This paper explores the concept of 'systemic' in the context of systems of care. Systems theory is used to understand strategies of purposeful systems change undertaken by stakeholders in established system of care communities. The paper presents a conceptual model of systems change for systems of care that is grounded in data from a national study of system of care implementation (Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health in Case Studies of system implementation: Holistic approaches to studying community-based systems of care: Study 2, University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health, Tampa, FL, ). The model is based on Soft Systems Methodology, an application of systems theory developed to facilitate practical action around systems change in human systems (Checkland in Systems thinking, systems practice, Wiley, Chichester, ). The implications of these findings to real world actions associated with systems change in systems of care are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the concept of culture has long been central to community psychology research and intervention, it has most frequently referred to the communities in which such work occurs. The purpose of this paper is to reframe this discussion by viewing community interventions as instances of intercultural contact between the culture of science, reflected in community intervention research, and the culture of the communities in which those interventions occur. Following a brief discussion of the complexities of culture as a concept, two illustrative stories of failed community interventions are provided to highlight the centrality of cultural and contextual understanding as prelude to community intervention. These stories, set 50 years apart, reflect the depth and pervasive influence of both the culture of science and the culture of communities. Next, a series of propositions about the culture of social science as a partial reflection of the broader culture of the United States are offered, and their implications for the conduct of community interventions drawn. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations which, together, provide an ecological mind-set for taking culture seriously in community interventions. Central to this mind set are the importance of focusing on communities rather than programs and emphasizing the intervention goal of choice over change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews policies promoting faith-based organizations' (FBO) participation in publicly-funded programs since the Charitable Choice statute was enacted during the Clinton administration and then additional faith-based initiatives were implemented by the Bush administration. The paper focuses on research findings on FBO participation in publicly-funded human service programs under these policies. It then proposes a framework for evaluation to assess the appropriateness of public funding for behavioral health services delivered by FBOs, in order to address: (1) the programmatic and systemic effects resulting from the infusion of new players from the faith community, and the consequences to the profile of services and who gets served; and (2) the content and effectiveness of faith-infused services as a basis for identifying interventions appropriate for public funding. The analysis considers classification issues, theoretical bases of measured effects of faith-infused services, and the transferability of faith-based interventions across religious and secular applications in order to satisfy constitutional issues and client choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on a paper which looked at the failure of the educational reform movement in public schools in the United States. Indication that schools violate the context for productive learning; Outcome of classrooms if they become a context for productive learning; Reference to a 1973 paper in `The American Psychologist.'

Coalition-based efforts that use a science-based approach to prevention can improve the wellbeing of community youth. This study measured several coalition capacities that are hypothesized to facilitate the adoption of a science-based approach to prevention in communities. Using data from 12 coalitions participating in a community-randomized trial of the prevention strategy Communities That Care (CTC), this paper describes select measurement properties of five salient coalition capacities (member substantive knowledge of prevention, member acquisition of new skills, member attitudes toward CTC, organizational linkages, and influence on organizations), as reported by coalition members, and examines the degree to which these capacities facilitated the community leader reports of the community-wide adoption of a science-based approach to prevention. Findings indicated that the five coalition capacities could be reliably measured using coalition member reports. Meta-regression analyses found that CTC had a greater impact on the adoption of a science-based prevention approach in 12 matched pairs of control and CTC communities where the CTC coalition had greater member (new skill acquisition) and organizational capacities (organizational linkages). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Third spaces are in-between places where teacher-student scripts intersect, creating the potential for authentic interaction and a shift in what counts as knowledge. This paper describes a unique community-university initiative: a third space storefront classroom for postsecondary students in professional education programs, which also functions as a community art studio for the surrounding neighborhood. This approach to professional education requires an innovative combination of theory, methods, and materials as enacted by the professionals involved and performed by the students. This storefront classroom utilizes collaborative and inclusive instructional practices that promote human and community development. It facilitates the use of innovative instructional strategies including art making and participatory dialogue to create a liminal learning space that reconfigures professional education. In researching the effectiveness of this storefront classroom, we share the voices of students who have participated in this third space as part of their coursework to underscore these principles and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coalitions are routinely employed across the United States as a method of mobilizing communities to improve local conditions that impact on citizens' well-being. Success in achieving specific objectives for environmental or structural community change may not quickly translate into improved population outcomes in the community, posing a dilemma for coalitions that pursue changes that focus on altering community conditions. Considerable effort by communities to plan for and pursue structural change objectives, without evidence of logical and appropriate intermediate markers of success could lead to wasted effort. Yet, the current literature provides little guidance on how coalitions might select intermediate indicators of achievement to judge their progress and the utility of their effort. The current paper explores the strengths and weaknesses of various indicators of intermediate success in creating structural changes among a sample of 13 coalitions organized to prevent exposure to HIV among high-risk adolescents in their local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF) was introduced as a heuristic systems level model to help bridge the gap between research and practice (Wandersman et al., in Am J Commun Psychol 41:171-181, ). This model describes three interacting systems with distinct functions that (1) distill knowledge to develop innovations; (2) provide supportive training and technical assistance for dissemination to; (3) a prevention delivery system responsible for implementation in the field. The Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) is a major prevention innovation launched by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The SPF offers a structured, sequential, data-driven approach that explicitly targets environmental conditions in the community and aims for change in substance use and problems at the population level. This paper describes how the ISF was applied to the challenges of implementing the SPF in 14 Rhode Island communities, with a focus on the development of a new Training and Technical Assistance Resources Center to support SPF efforts. More specifically, we (1) describe each of the three ISF interacting systems as they evolved in Rhode Island; (2) articulate the lines of communication between the three systems; and (3) examine selected evaluation data to understand relationships between training and technical assistance and SPF implementation and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable resources have been spent developing and rigorously testing HIV prevention intervention models, but such models do not impact the AIDS pandemic unless they are implemented effectively by community-based organizations (CBOs) and health departments. The Mpowerment Project (MP) is being implemented by CBOs around the US. It is a multilevel, evidence-based HIV prevention program for young gay/bisexual men that targets individual, interpersonal, social, and structural issues by using empowerment and community mobilization methods. This paper discusses the development of an intervention to help CBOs implement the MP called the Mpowerment Project Technology Exchange System (MPTES); CBOs' uptake, utilization and perceptions of the MPTES components; and issues that arose during technical assistance. The seven-component MPTES was provided to 49 CBOs implementing the MP that were followed longitudinally for up to two years. Except for the widely used program manual, other program materials were used early in implementing the MP and then their use declined. In contrast, once technical assistance was proactively provided, its usage remained constant over time, as did requests for technical assistance. CBOs expressed substantial positive feedback about the MPTES, but felt that it needs more focus on diversity issues, describing real world implementation approaches, and providing guidance on how to adapt the MP to diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latino immigrant families with children with disabilities experience multiple sources of oppression during their settlement process in the United States. Unfair social structures and dominant cultural values and norms and the way they influence the immigrants' personal life stories generate a cycle of oppression very difficult to break. This paper presents a case study of how a group of Latino parents carried out a process of liberation fueled by the generation of empowering community narratives (critical awareness leading to transformative action) that resulted from a community-university partnership. Participants initiated a process that led them to discover their own stories of oppression and create new stories; to deconstruct the dominant cultural narratives and modify existing ones; and to understand contexts for power sharing. This joint reflection and increased awareness propelled group members to take action by founding a grassroots organization to redress some of the injustices that were partly responsible for their oppression, thus generating shifts at the personal, relational, and collective levels. In light of the theory of liberation, we discuss the participants' development of critical awareness that led them to take action to address their unmet needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to discuss the formidable challenges to community reentry and reintegration faced by U.S. prison inmates with serious mental illness and to describe various strategies for improving transitional services for these individuals. We review epidemiologic data supporting the high prevalence of severe mental illness in U.S. prisons as well as the historical factors underlying the criminalization of the mentally ill. The importance and challenges of providing adequate psychiatric care for mentally ill prisoners during their incarceration are discussed. We also review the numerous psychosocial and economic challenges confronting these individuals upon their release from prison, such as unemployment and vulnerability to homelessness, as well as specific barriers they may encounter in attempting to access community-based mental health services. We follow with a discussion of some of the more promising strategies for improving the transition of the mentally ill from prison to the community. In the final sections, we review the evidence for a relationship between serious mental illness and recidivism and briefly discuss emerging alternatives to incarceration of the mentally ill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research is examining the strengths and weaknesses of specific after school programs and their effect on youth outcomes. Few reviews, however, have sought to examine the components of citywide system-building—to understand intentional efforts to develop, support and sustain high quality after school programming across a community. Beginning in the mid-1990s and continuing through the present, private funders, public officials and program practitioners in cities across America have joined together to build systems to support the expansion and improvement of after school programs at the city-level. This paper presents the community context and underlying principles that drove the development of Baltimore’s After- School Strategy; articulates a set of system components derived from this experience and the available literature; and lays out future work to expand high quality after-school opportunities for youth in Baltimore and in other distressed urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The children’s system of care initiative in the United States requires the participation of caregivers of children with emotional or behavioral problems in conducting research and evaluation. This entails a restructuring of traditional power dynamics among families served by the community mental health system and other system stakeholders, including researchers. However, evidence indicates that system of care research may not currently embrace the different types of knowledge possessed by caregivers and may be frustrated by traditional power hierarchies, resulting in research findings that are not useful for the community. In this paper I examine a framework for power and knowledge and examine how, when viewed through this framework, participatory research in the system of care initiative thus far may be less than authentic. I conclude with improvements suggested by the framework that are expected to shift power to caregivers and result in more useful, actionable research findings for the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined whether community readiness, prevention knowledge, coalition functioning, and barriers are linked to perceived effectiveness of community prevention coalitions. Interviews were conducted with 203 key leaders in Communities That Care (CTC) prevention boards in 21 Pennsylvania communities. Community-level means for the reliable self-report measures were utilized separately and in combination with research staff ratings, state technical assistant staff ratings, and other data. The results indicated that the strong link between readiness and perceived effectiveness was mediated by internal coalition functioning. The extent of CTC linkage with outside community entities was not linked to perceived effectiveness. The study concludes that community readiness is an important condition for success of a prevention coalition, and exerts effects mainly through the quality of the coalition's internal functioning. Member turnover and infighting appear to be important factors related to internal functioning. Linkage with outside entities may be more important for coalition models where the coalition is more dependent on local institutions for resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No one denies that the Boulder Conference on Clinical Psychology marked a turning point on American psychology. This paper by one of the three or four living participants lists the conference as one in which psychology was at a choice point, went in one and only one direction, without examining the possible consequences or the possibility of going in more than 1 direction. A second theme is that the APA has to be faulted for a lack of searching self-scrutiny of its past. Organizations, like individuals, resist such self-scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A liberation psychology is needed to bridge the gap between psychology's focus on individual distress and broad social forces that foster such distress. We offer a model for bridging this gap by focusing on a specific area of psychology (psychological research on girls) and a specific social movement (feminist activism). Psychological research on girls and feminist activism share the common goal of improving the lives of girls and women. However, both have fallen short of this goal. This is due, in part, to the weaknesses associated with each endeavor and to the fact that the complementary strengths of each have remained isolated from the other. In this paper, we propose a common language and shared framework to integrate psychological research with feminist activism. First, we review the basic strengths and weaknesses associated with psychological research and feminist activism, with a particular focus on how they are distinct from one another. Second, we provide a taxonomic framework for integrating these two areas on the basis of the stress paradigm, with specific examples provided from our recent reviews of the literature and our own empirical work with adolescent girls. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for future work needed to integrate psychological research on girls with feminist activism toward the goal of building a liberation psychology in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the characteristics of empowering community settings. What does the paper uses; What was research conducted on; Findings of organizational features; Discussion on limitations.