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Welcome to our March Newsletter!
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*Sighs*—what a challenging year 2026 has been so far! At ECPA, we’ve been doing our best to resist the global turbulences by engaging with our communities and exploring new ways to connect with our members.
We have some updates to share with you about our mapping exercise! We’ll soon be introducing a few proposals to help you get more involved with the association. And of course, we’d love to hear your suggestions and ideas as well.
One thing is certain: we must stay strong and firmly stand up against intolerance, violence, and oppression! |
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April is Genocide Remembrance Month
We are approaching April, widely recognized as genocide remembrance month. The idea for a dedicated month arose from the fact that many significant historical events tied to genocide occurred in April, such as the beginning of the Rwandan genocide, the Armenian genocide, the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and the Cambodian genocide.
We also acknowledge all the ongoing mass violence and dispossession happening in so many countries around the globe, including Palestine, Sudan, DRC, Lebanon, Cuba, Iran, and more.
Advocates, including survivor groups and human rights organizations, use this month to educate the public and encourage steps to stop such atrocities before they happen again. This effort engages schools, museums, and community spaces where discussions, art, and memorials highlight the need for vigilance and action against genocide.
Through storytelling, education, and public events, Genocide Awareness Month encourages everyone to learn from the past and take action to prevent future atrocities and speak out against ongoing ones.
It also highlights the personal stories of survivors, turning abstract history into real, human experiences. For community psychologists, this month carries a particular responsibility. Our field sheds light on the mechanisms of dehumanization, prejudice, conformity, and silence that can sustain mass violence. With this knowledge comes an ethical obligation: to speak out against injustice, to challenge narratives that normalize harm, and to support communities affected by violence and oppression.
Commemoration must go hand in hand with action. As scholars and practitioners, we are called to use our voices, research, and practice to resist indifference and contribute to a more just and humane world. |
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ECPA Mapping Activity
We are interested in you, our members, and in other community psychologists and practitioners in Europe. We are currently starting a mapping that aims at better understanding the needs and the specific situations in all European regions and fields of praxis.
This collaborative activity could strengthen connections between members, create a more fruitful network of peers and it would be also beneficial for EFPA and the ongoing move towards recognizing Community Psychology as a specific field of practice for the EuroPsy certificate.
Our current plan is to facilitate a few online cafés among members and then assemble and send out a survey to collect more precise information. We will contact you soon with a request to share insights from your region and will keep on updating you on the next steps. Simona Hendrychová (ECPA Board) coordinates this activity. Write any questions and suggestions to simona.hendrychova@fss.muni.cz |
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Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Rivista Italiana di Psicologia di Comunità 2_2026
Rethinking Participatory and Transformative Methodologies: New Directions and Challenges for Contemporary Community Psychology
Editorial Board:
Laura Migliorini, Università degli Studi di Genova
María Isabel Reyes Espejo, Universidad Pontificia de Valparaíso
Marta Gaboardi, Università degli Studi di Padova
Introduction
Community psychology is a multidisciplinary field characterized by innovative approaches, participatory and transformative research methodologies, and interventions aimed at promoting collective well-being, equity, and social inclusion. These methodologies are grounded in an epistemological paradigm that fosters community empowerment and supports social change processes based on shared, co-constructed knowledge practices. However, their transformative potential is not merely technical, and it depends on: the ethical and political conditions under which participatory processes take place; who defines the problem; how benefits and knowledge circulate; and the forms of recognition and redistribution that interventions enable (or restrict). In this context, adopting transformative and innovative tools enables the development of new theoretical knowledge and generates interventions capable of producing meaningful changes in social systems and power relations. Furthermore, these methodologies allow for the timely identification of emerging issues and unprecedented challenges, enabling effective responses to social, cultural, and economic transformations. Their contextual nature makes them essential tools for understanding and addressing the complexities of a constantly changing society, fostering the development of theoretical and practical interventions suited to contemporary needs. This requires an in-depth understanding of the context and close collaboration between different disciplines. Sometimes it involves adopting methods typically rooted in other disciplines (e.g. visual arts, theatre, outdoor activities), which can play a crucial role in fostering meaningful community participation and enriching disciplinary knowledge. From a community psychology perspective, this requires maintaining robust ethical standards regarding participation. This includes recognizing consent as an ongoing process, caring for relationships, preventing potential harm, and promoting epistemic justice, which encourages knowledge exchange and reflexivity regarding power asymmetries among academia, institutions, and communities.
This discussion is particularly relevant in Global South contexts and in territories marked by structural inequalities, coloniality, and historical violence, where participation may become a vehicle for democratising knowledge, or “managed participation”, or a means of knowledge extraction or tokenism - the superficial inclusion of individuals, groups, or communities belonging to minority groups to give the appearance of diversity and inclusion without granting them real power or addressing structural inequalities. For this reason, this Special Issue also seeks contributions that help to unpack the complexities underlying transformative methodologies and their conditions of possibility in diverse contexts.
This Special Issue aims to gather contributions that critically and innovatively explore the potential of innovative and transformative methodologies, emphasising their role in fostering inclusive, resilient, and participatory communities.
Objectives
This Special Issue seeks to explore and discuss transformative and innovative methodologies applied within the field of community psychology. Articles may address research, intervention, and/or training experiences and should highlight the transformative impact of the methodologies employed, both in terms of knowledge development and social change.
Topics of Interest
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Participatory methodologies for the active involvement of communities.
- Innovative approaches to knowledge co-creation.
- Digital technologies as useful tools in community psychology.
- Evaluation of the impact of transformative methodologies.
- Case studies of experiences that have produced significant change at the community level.
- Ethical and practical challenges in the use of these methodologies.
- Theoretical and methodological perspectives on the role of transformative methodologies in addressing current and future social challenges (e.g., climate change, migration flows, emergencies, etc.).
Types of Contributions Accepted
The following will be considered for publication:
- Theoretical and review articles critically analyzing the use of transformative methodologies;
- Empirical articles;
- Case studies documenting significant experiences in the application of transformative methodologies;
- Methodological contributions presenting new transformative techniques or tools.
Guidelines for Manuscript Submission
Authors interested in contributing to this Special Issue are invited to submit their manuscripts in accordance with the author guidelines of the Rivista Italiana di Psicologia di Comunità. Submissions must be original and not under consideration by other journals. Manuscripts, written in English, must be submitted by May through the journal’s online submission system, clearly indicating in the appropriate field that the article is intended for the Special Issue “Transformative Methodologies.”
Important Dates
Submission deadline: 30 may 26
Notification of review results: 30 june/15 july 26
Publication of the Special Issue: december 26 |
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"Pupatell3 & Femmenell" : Intergenerational
Historical Dialogue on Neapolitan Transfemininity
March 25, 3PM to 6PM CET, Federfarma Napoli, sponsored by the City of Naples and ECPA.
Join community practictioners at the Identity, Gender and Culture Foundation, Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II, to discuss research, historical memory, and community experiences. The meeting includes a participatory activity aimed at building an Atlas of Memories, Places, and Meanings related to Transfeminine Subjectivities. information and registrations here.
Organisers:Francesca Margherita De Falco – francescamargherita.defalco@unina.it and Paolo Valerio – paolovalerio48@gmail.com |
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ECPA AWARDS 2026
Call for nominations is open until May 30
ECPA Lifetime Career Award: individuals with outstanding, long-term scientific contribution to community psychology theory, research, and practice.
ECPA Early Career Award: individuals with significant contribution(s) to the field of community psychology and who are within ten years of their last degree.
ECPA Contribution to Practice Award: to honour individuals, groups, or organisations that have made significant contributions to the field of community psychology. It recognises bodies of work that demonstrate high-quality and innovative applications of community psychological principles, resulting in meaningful impacts on the communities served.
ECPA Best Doctoral Thesis Award: best doctoral thesis on a topic relevant to the field of community psychology completed during the prior two years. The completion date for the dissertation refers to the graduation date. We might consider accepting dissertations in languages other than English, depending on our capacity. Please get in touch with us first to discuss this.
ECPA Master Thesis Award: best master’s thesis in the field of community psychology completed during the previous year. The completion date for the thesis refers to the graduation date. We might consider accepting dissertations in languages other than English, depending on our capacity. Please get in touch with us first to discuss this. For 2025, ECPA will provide 200 euros to the winner.
Procedure rules
- The awards are awarded annually.
- Nominations and self-nominations are considered only from ECPA members, except for the Masters Thesis Award.
- Nominations and self-nominations are both accepted.
- Past winners cannot be nominated for the same category of award.
- All nominations should be sent as email attachments to the ECPA Board by the deadline (May 30th) at ecpa.psychassociation@gmail.com.
- Applications for Lifetime Career Award, Early Career Award, and Contribution to Practice Award should include:
- The nominee CV
- 1-2 pages letter describing the nominee’s work and why they are worthy of recognition.
- Details of the proposer (when applicable) and nominee’s personal data (names, address, and e-mails).
- It is strongly recommended to accompany the submission with supporting documents, including the nominee’s published papers, book chapters, and/or other relevant outputs.
- For the Doctoral Thesis Award, please submit:
- The doctoral thesis in its original form
- A document (in english, max. 4,000 words) including: an abstract (~300 words); state of the art; methodology; results; discussion; conclusions.
- CV and brief presentation of the applicant (~300 words).
- For the Master Thesis Award, please submit:
- The master thesis in its original form
- A document (in english, max. 2,000 words) including: an abstract (~300 words); state of the art; methodology; results; discussion; conclusions.
- CV and brief presentation of the applicant (~300 words).
- The prizes will be awarded by a Committee that includes one ECPA Board member and at least two invited external experts.
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The International Declaration on Core Competences in Professional Psychology has established a robust foundation for defining essential competences in the field. The background to the Declaration can be read here.
However, the rapid evolution of psychological practice necessitates a periodic reassessment to ensure its continued relevance. Emerging trends - such as the increasing digitalization of services, the growing emphasis on the quality of professional practice through developing others by means such as supervision, and the importance of underpinning professional practice with continuing cultural competence - highlight critical areas requiring further attention.
The current IPCP Working Group (2023-2026) has therefore prepared a Supplement to the Declaration and is now consulting on the content. The work in this Supplement to the Declaration will be incorporated into a 2026 version of the Declaration so that, for completeness and ease of reference, the reader can access all the material in one place. The sections of the Declaration will therefore be supplemented as follows:
• The Introduction and Preamble will be updated with the essential points in the content of the Introduction / Preamble to this Supplement.
• The Supplemental Competences will be added into the section CORE COMPETENCES IN PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.
• The Supplemental Terms and Definitions will be added to the section TERMS AND DEFINITIONS.
This online consultation form is intended to capture feedback from stakeholders on the Supplement to the International Declaration on Core Competences in Professional Psychology draft dated 13 February 2026.
Please read the draft Supplement to the International Declaration on Core Competences in Professional Psychology which is available here, then answer the following questions. The form is designed to capture some minimal descriptive data related to respondents so that an analysis can be made of any constituency / grouping(s) of stakeholder that may perceive they will be impacted in a particular way by any of the proposals.
For each proposed supplemental competence, you are asked whether you agree with the proposed supplementary material as drafted, or whether you have a comment. Please answer each and every question in the form. It is estimated that it will take no longer than five minutes to complete once the Supplement to the Declaration has been read and considered.
Thank you for your assistance with this work. Any questions on the content of the Supplement to the International Declaration on Core Competences in Professional Psychology should be directed to Professor Dragos Iliescu at dragos.iliescu@fpse.unibuc.ro. Any request for help with the survey document / system should be addressed to Mrs. Anca Grecu at anca.grecu@psyence.ro.
The deadline for responses is by April 15th 2026 at 10:00 am CET.
The data in this form is being collected in accordance with the privacy policy of the University of Bucharest which can be found here.
We invite you to contact us at ecpa.psychassociation@gmail.com with any suggestions of events, opportunities or papers to include in future newsletters, and don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, BlueSky, or Facebook.
We appreciate you for being part of our community! |
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