New Bank for Community Ideas and Solutions

“Psychology and social change for our future world”

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EFPA SC Community Psychology, AIP, Community Psychology Lab,

University Federico II, Psy-Com Aps, SIPCO

9.00-14.30, 25th of November 2023

Fondazione Mediterraneo, Via De Pretis 130, Naples in person and zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85641575508?pwd=dmVZaG56UVpsR1hpelNsVEdDeW04dz09

9.00 Neapolitan environment friendly welcome!!!

5mns video “Gardening against any addiction!

Dott.Anita Rubino, Dipartimento per le dipendenze Asl Napoli1 Centro

 Psychology today and Environmental future issues

Introduction

Prof. Christoph Steinebach, President EFPA

Dr. David Lazzari President CNOP

Prof. Santo Di Nuovo President INPA

Prof. Cinzia Albanesi President ECPA

10.00 How to use the tools of Community Psychology (e.g., Participatory Research) to support and stimulate climate engagement?

Chair prof. Immacolata Di Napoli   

Promising projects to fight climate change based on Community Psychology principles

Prof. Minou Mebane EFPA WG CP Project on climate change

Prof. Bjørn Z. Ekelund

Strengthening innovative capability for community engagement and climate issues.4 cases applying Theory U and Diver

Community psychological perspectives on climate change

prof Emeritus Bernd Roehrle, University of Marburg 

Climate change and community psychology issues

 Prof. Fortuna Procentese, President SIPCO,University Federico II Naples

 11/25 UN day to fight violence against women and climate change. The respect of the earth as a non-predatory feminine value

Marina Passos, phd Student University Federico II

12.15-14.00 Workshop
The New Bank of Community Ideas and Solutions
In Quest of a Common Global Currency of Tomorrow

In this 2-hours workshop, we will analyze and present patterns of success built into the moments and sense of community, in order to make them transferable to other situations and areas. Interactively, we will discuss conditions needed to create and tell transformative community stories, and share our own stories.

Wolfgang Stark (Germany), with Bill Berkowitz, Leslie Hatch Gail, Brad Olson, Jordan Russell, MoDena Stinette, Tom Wolff (USA), Liesette Brunson (Canada), Caterina Arcidiacono (Italy), Nicholas Carr (Norway)

The ‘New Bank for Community Ideas and Solutions’ offers concrete examples how we build community and collaborate creatively as a community. It recognizes and appreciates inspiring stories of community resilience and creativity as shared ‘societal treasures’ and as an important part of our ‘common social wealth’.

2023 – EFPA ITALIAN SEMESTER ON PSYCHOLOGY

In Place of War

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Imagine, people put creativity, arts and music in place of war and violence.

Imagine, young people learn by being creative and living their passion.
Imagine, people use their creative skills to develop visions for being artists, professionals and entrepreneurs.

In Place of War is a global network which goes beyond empowerment story-telling. They help people to create and live their stories of community resilience. Since 2004, they enable grassroots change-makers in music, theatre and across the arts to transform a culture of violence and suffering into hope, opportunity and freedom. Up to now, dozens of creative educational and performative projects in more than 26 countries around the world have been launched successfully.

GRRRL — a global group of women from places of conflict using music to tell their stories

In Place of War supports individuals or communities that have been affected by war, post-war, gang-war and political oppression. They:

  • create safe and technically equipped cultural spaces and art centres (like studios, theatres or galleries) in the most marginalized communities in the world.
  • have developed a creative entrepreneur training (CASE), designed specifically for conflict zones; more than 200 trainers in 18 countries have been trained.
  • curate international artistic collaboration as an antidote to violence, and they share skills, knowledge and hope. Over 1000 artists from 25 countries have been mobilized and created gigs, festivals, tours, collaborations and theater performances.

In Place of War-projects show how art engages people away from violence, enables freedom of expression and helps people develop positive role models. Arts centres create places of safety in conflict zones, offer young people a way to escape from everyday conflict, and provide spaces to develop alternative values and norms. Artistic collaboration breaks down barriers and give voice to the voiceless.
Art is a tool for engagement in communities, for reconciliation and intercultural dialogue, and imagining worlds different from the one you are in. It is creating fun, joy and beauty — in places where this is in short supply.

Story submitted by, Ruth Daniel, founder and CEO of In Place of War

For more information, please contact: ruth.daniel@manchester.co.uk

People Protecting Each-other Sustainably – PPEs

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People Protecting Each-other Sustainably (PPEs) was developed to recruit and manage over 100 Northeast
Ohio volunteers. People Protecting Each-other Sustainably used the social media platform Facebook to facilitate material donations, volunteer recruitment and training, and to function as an ongoing central communications hub. Leaders used an assembly line process with zero contact pick up and drop off at multiple stages of production to allow safe assembly and distribution of face masks.

A total of 7,695 handmade face masks were created to distribute to local frontline responders in 10 weeks. Use of upsourced and donated materials allowed this project to reduce potential landfill waste and made a zero cost project possible. Volunteers had positive responses to the project and reported benefits from their participation.

This model has been successfully recreated by a smaller group in Geauga County, Ohio, with similarly successful results. Clearly this model of community mobilization has the potential to be replicated in other state of emergency crises and emergency response situations to produce lifesaving or necessary equipment when industry standard equipment is not readily available.

For more information, please click here.

Story submitted by Andrew Snyder, USA

asnyde20@kent.edu

Lockdown Spirit Lives On as Neighbour Groups Become Swap Shops

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During the pandemic, community members in south London began communicating via WhatsApp. They were able to fulfill requests in the community at no cost to those in need. A year and a half later, rather than go back to traditional means of selling items through on-line garage sales, these south Londoners were still using the app to swap and share services at no cost.

This spirit of swapping was happening in other communities as well. The Freecycle Network, a platform where people share items for free, saw a 50% increase during the pandemic. People discovered they were finding connection through generosity and wanted it to continue.

Photo share from the Guardian.com

A retired school teacher learned she could use Freecycle to ask for items needed by asylum seekers. She received an overwhelming response and spread the generosity of the Freecycle community to other groups. They raised money and swapped things that may have otherwise ended up in landfills.

One of the lessons learned by this community was that making connections and helping one another for no personal gain is contagious. What started as a way to help during a global pandemic proved to be a sustainable way to funnel items in the hands of those who need them. In addition, they were able to work toward the broader goal of keeping usable items out of landfills.

For more information, click here.

Story shared by, Bradley Olson, PhD, USA

Unexpected Death Sparks Community Unity

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The unexpected death of a Lake County, Illinois man sparked community unity. On August 2, 2021, Clyde Lewis Jr. was fatally injured in a car accident while he was on his way to help a friend “save” her son from being under-sheltered. The friend also suffered fatal injuries in the crash. This young man was a beloved member of this community. Three of his friends felt the need to “do something” to honor him.

Three of his friends felt the need to “do something” to honor him. On August 3, 2021 within a 3-hour time period these three friends, Rayon Edwards (Ray Ray), Trina Friar (Trixi), and Ronald McCarthy (momma), called out the community to meet at “King Park” for a balloon release and candlelight vigil. The gathering was scheduled for three hours. Within the three hours over 400 people showed up to honor this young man. Community members brought food to grill, games for kids, alcohol to “pour out” (by tradition -honoring a fallen homie).

People do not have to be conventional by society’s standards, educated, well-mannered, and the like, they just have to have a caring heart and the spirit of community building to make it happen. Rayon Edwards (Ray Ray), Trina Friar (Trixi), and Ronald McCarthy (momma) three of this communities marginalized and oppressed by stereotypes and labels that, as shown by the events of August 3, 2021, do not define who they are or what they are capable of doing in their community.

Story shared by, MoDena Stinette, USA

Project Taillight

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Project Taillight seeks to connect low-income residents with proactive headlight, taillight, license plate light, and/or turn signal repair services for free. Students of the Columbus State Automotive Technology program provide labor for this innovative public safety and crime prevention program. Because non-violent crimes are more often linked to poverty and lack of opportunity, this program reduces the need for residents and police to interact over minor violations.

Photo retrieved from columbusunderground.com

The goal of the program is to reduce minor traffic violations, allowing police to focus on more violent crime, while also reducing the number of times residents are pulled over along the side of the road for non-violent crimes. Additionally, it is a way for Columbus State students to give back to the community.

Some repairs have proven greater than the students can manage, but they work to coordinate assistance. They have interactions with the residents and learn how to provide customer service. The program has a $50,000 budget and also received a $25,000 contribution from the Columbus Department of Public Safety general fund. They hope to grow and expand.

For more information, please click here.

Story shared by Leslie Hatch Gail, USA

Young Ethiopian Tech Genius Teaches Others

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Betelhem Dessie, is a young tech tutor in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dessie has been a tech tutor for three years. Using iCog, Dessie has partnered with two projects. One is iCog Anyone Can Code, teaches children between ages eight to eighteen the basics of coding and robotics. The second is Solve It, a democratized technology on solving community problems by the local people. The aim of the projects is to educate and build human capital in Ethiopia and Africa. Importantly, to address technology biased where less women and people of color are represented in technology.

Young people, male and female in Ethiopia are learning to use technology to address community challenges.

Betelhem Dessie Photo retrieved from unicef.org

This social start up uses technology tutoring to address technology inequities, or technological bias against women and people of color.

For more information, please click here.

Story shared by Margaret Sergon, USA

The Village That Built its Own Wi-Fi Network

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The community of Mankosi, South Africa, in collaboration with researchers from the university of Western Cape, build their own stable and affordable wi-fi. The system is a low-energy, using scattered nodes instead of a central mast or beacons that are used by traditional telecom networks. The system is powered by solar.

Photo retrieved from theconversation.com

The outcomes included affordable wi-fi in the village; the WIFI helped students to do research; it became a source of income for those selling wi-fi vouchers, as well as for the technician; money from the sale of wi-fi is channeled to other community projects, and it brings the community together in monthly meetings to discuss wi-fi related matters.

For more information, please click here.

Story shared by Margaret Sergon, USA

Middleton’s Village to Village: Making “Junkers” Run Again

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Eliot Middleton donated his first vehicle in January of 2020. Since then, he has given away 90 more to people that need cars. Eliot worked on the cars during his off days and donated his first car to a mother of a disabled child who needed the car for regular hospital visits. According to Eliot, the woman decided to pay it forward. She got a job, bought a new car, and will donate the car given to her by Eliot back to him.

Photo retrieved from goodlivingguide.com

In November of 2020, a foundation was started called Middleton’s Village to Village. The foundation is run via the foundations’ Facebook page with support from friends and family.

A lesson that learned from Eliot’s story is that good deeds inspire more good deeds.

For more information, please click here.

Story shared by Tressa Greer, USA

21 Days of Peace: Pilot Program to Deter Crime

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A grieving Minneapolis community is asking for information that will lead to the gunmen who killed two children and seriously injured another. KG Wilson’s 6-year-old granddaughter, Aniya Allen, was the last of the three children shot in the head and the first to die. KG Wilson is on his bullhorn and passing out flyers, looking for justice and closure for his family and the others impacted by gun violence in the community. Nine-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith took her last breath Thursday night. Ladavionne Garrett Jr. was shot 29 days ago and is still fighting to recover.

Photo retrieved from minnesota.cbslocal.com

21 Days of Peace” officially kicks off Friday night. Church and community members are combining efforts to patrol high-crime areas to be a presence, as well as to offer resources for those in need.

A community that has issues with poverty and oppression are able to mobilize for a common cause and able to gain support or organizations.

For more information, please click here.

Story shared by, MoDena Stinette, USA