Leverett is a small rural town in Western Mass of 1700 people. Our local community building group, the Leverett Alliance, listening to community voices decided to launch a town wide list.serve. Until then the town had no way to connect, exchange info, etc.
In September we started to publicize by posting flyers, sitting at the dump and the Post Office. Within a few months we had 250 members. We then sent a postcard to every household showing how easy it was to sign up for free, and the number climbed. People used the list serve to ask for help offer help, etc.
Then corona virus hit the country and since then the number of folks engaged has grown (now over 425) and the exchanges are very moving. Making masks for each other, shopping for each other, going to the dump for each other, food delivery options, finding out when to shop at the stores, etc.
It has created a true sense of community and has addressed very concrete needs. Some have even started an “coyote howl” across the pond in the center of town to mimic some of the activity in Italy and elsewhere.
As one user observed: “Hi, everyone,I just picked up an absolutely delightful rainbow-striped mask from the Post Office Thank you, seamstresses and seamsters!Thanks, too, to the enlightened techies who set up Leverett Connects. Who could have known that it would become so crucial to so many of us?It is wonderful to live in this town.” (Annie Jones)
We have heard that list serves like this are working in
urban neighborhoods as well.
Story shared by Tom Wolff, from Massachusetts, USA.
PAEHL (Southern Bavaria, Germany) is a small community (2000 inhabitants) in a picturesque location south of Munich and close to the Alps.
Although it is well known for a rich community life (traditional music bands, soccer, clubs maintaining local traditions), the corona-lock-down came as a surprise. However, in a very short time after, the community came together to support the vulnerable groups.
Picture sent by Wolfgang Stark
The young people of the village formed a voluntary corona task force within two days after lock-down. The local mayor immediately started phone-calls to 200 (!) local inhabitants aged over 70, asking if they needed support on food supply or health services. Seniors have also been asked if they would like to receive regular phone-calls if they lived alone.
The local voluntary corona task force provided food supply and shopping services from day three after lock-down. Municipal administration is coordinating orders. The small local public library offered book deliveries on demand. Local administration sent out direct mailers to all households with information emergency phone numbers, health services during shut-down, where to buy local food or where to order hot meals delivered to households.
Based on a rich community life people are amazingly fast and creative to form community support systems. Collaboration of all sectors of everyday life (young and old, local shops and market gardens, libraries, community administration…) is key.
This story was shared by Wolfgang Stark, from Germany.
During the Covid-19 crisis, many individuals and communities have been resonating about new forms of sense of community, mutual support and neighbourhood, and also acting in a surprisingly creative manner, collaborating and re-inventing community life.
We would like to know what is going on and we want to capture community lessons for our society from these experiences.
Perhaps your own community has experienced a surprising situation or developed a distinctive response to the coronavirus outbreak. We encourage you to share your experience by answering our survey, accessible via the button below.
We aim to post these experiences in multiple sites (e.g., ECPA, SCRA, CTB, etc). We will also share the stories in a Facebook Group and later at the new webportal of the New Bank of Community Ideas and Solutions.
We hope this site may help to demonstrate the importance of community building in a time of crisis, and illustrate the many ways that community psychology and community action can make a contribution.
Remembering our shared moments and experiences will help to create a better world!
Wolfgang Stark (Germany); Bill Berkowitz, Tom Wolff and Bradley Olson (USA); Cinzia Albanesi and Caterina Arcidiacono (Italy); Maria Fernandes-Jesus and Maria Vargas-Moniz (Portugal).
ECPA CALL TO ACTION #5 Join the CPs “Fridays for coping with the Coronavirus pandemic”
We invite you to join our weekly CPs meetings. 31 participants across the world joined the conference call launched by Wolfgang Stark. See a short summary here. So it was decided that this could become a regular date for CPs. Each Fridays at 5pm (CET) Wolfgang Stark will host the meeting, regularly updates of the meeting will be published here, community psychologists across Europe and the rest of the world are invited to join.
Zoom-meeting will take place regularly on Friday at 5 pm CET. To attend please click here.
ECPA CALL TO ACTION #4 Create a useful resource platform here
ECPA CALL TO ACTION #3 Share your stories of fear and hope on the ECPA Facebook page
We also invite you to share your stories of fears and hopes we are experiencing in our countries at ECPA’s Facebook page.
ECPA CALL TO ACTION #2 Join the conference call launched by Wolfgang Stark ECPA-EFPA liaison member
Dear community psychology colleagues and friends,
In one of the most disruptive times of our lifetime and in our societies there is no doubt that our ‘sense of community‘ and our ability for mutual support may become a crucial factor how we will cope with a situation we never experienced before. This will be especially true for the weakest groups in our societies (see “Combating a Mental Health Pandemic“and attachments).
This may be the time when community psychology will be able to prove if our competencies and tools will be useful for real problems both locally and in a global scale. At the same time we are called for creative and immediate action to strengthen our communities towards a challenge we never experienced before. I wonder if you have similar thoughts and ideas.
If so, I would like to invite you to share your ideas, concerns, action, and experiences on what community psychology and community psychologists could contribute to strengthen the ‘sense of community’ facing isolation and social distance as a consequence of the corona pandemic.
If this makes sense to you, please join me for a community psychology Zoom call on Friday, March 20, 5 pm (CET). let us share ideas on how we can be supportive as community psychologists both on a local and global level. If you want to participate, please use the following link.
ECPA CALL TO ACTION #1
We invite Community Psychologists to use their professional networks and competencies to support communities’ adoption of safety behaviours, to share useful (verified) information, and to help people, in particular those who are more fragile (i.e. homeless people, digital immigrants), to cope with the quarantine related measures and the psychological impact of the emergency. If you have materials, documents that you think may be useful to be shared please send them to ecpa.psychassociation@gmail.com we will be happy to publish them on our website.
EFPA INITIATIVES
EFPA has shared some guidelines and possible actions for psychologists to deal with the COVID-19 emergency in its member associations in its homepage.
ECPA as an associate partner of EFPA recommends Community Psychologists in Europe to follow the guidelines on personal protection, environmental countermeasures, social distancing countermeasures and travel-related countermeasures provided by ECDC. The website provides daily updates on the situation.
On EFPA page there are also links to other useful resources related to the following topics:
Provision of first-line psychological support
Provision of online consultation
The psychological impact of quarantine – How to cope with quarantine/isolation
How do our member associations deal with the crisis?
The goalof the conference and workshop is to provide time and space for both researchers and practitioners from various areas of community psychology in Europe so they can meet, present their work and research, inspire each other, and enjoy socializing together.
Organisation
Institute of Applied Psychology at Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, European Community Psychology Association (ECPA), and The Society for Community and Action Research (SCRA) Division 27 Americal Psychological Association.
Conference language: English and Slovak
Conference and workshop dates
November, 30 – December 1, 2020 (9.00-16.00)
Conference fees: No fee (free access)
ECPA Workshops (topics and fees to be announced)
Deadline for active participation in the conference – September 13th, 2020
The proceedings from the conference will be published in electronic form with ISBN. The deadline for the submission of the conference papers is November 8th, 2019 (CommunityPsychologySlovakia@gmail.com ) in order to be reviewed and published prior the conference.
Invitation to the Annual General Assemblies & Workshop 3rd October, 2019
Dear ECPA Members,
It is now time to convey our annual General Assemblies that this year 2019 are integrated in the Conference “From Conflict and Hate to Healing and Hope: Psychological Perspectives on Community and Wellness” organized by Naples Community Psychology Lab (Caterina Arcidiacono and colleagues) (Italy).
This year we have an electoral cycle both for President of the next mandate 2019-2021 (President and Treasurer), and President-Elect (President and Treasurer) 2021-2023.
General Assembly I
Date: 3rd October, 2019
Location: Lanificio 25- piazza Enrico De Nicola (second courtyard) Napoli
Time: 19.30 – 21.00
Proposed Workplan
The 2017-2019 activity and financial reports are to be presented and discussed.
General Assembly II
Date: 4th October 2019
Location: DSU, University Federico II, Via Porta di Massa 1, second floor, room Iacono- Via – 80135 Napoli
Time: 13.30 – 14-30
Proposed Workplan
This year we have a two section electoral cycle:
A: The Board decided to submit an electoral cycle for the mandate of President of the Board 2019-2021;
B: Following the ECPA statutes this year we have a regular election for President Elect 2021-2023;
Therefore we hereby present to you the electoral calendar.
2019 Electoral Calendar & Invitation for candidates
Following the procedures of previous electoral cycles for the European Community Psychology Association, we are now in contact to invite you to participate in the elections:
ELECTION A: ECPA President of the Board and Treasurer for the term 2019-2021
ELECTION B: ECPA President of the Board and Treasurer for the term 2021-2023 (Being President-Elect for the mandate 2019-2021).
The two ballots shall be differentiated and contain the names of associate members who wish to be candidates for the position of President and Treasurer (2019-2021), and another for President-Elect for current term 2019-2021, that become President and Treasurer (2021-2023).
The ECPA is now accepting candidates for both the positions President and Treasurer with the following procedures and calendar:
Candidates for both positions of President and Treasurer are to present a letter to the electoral committee using the following email address – maria_moniz@ispa.pt – by September the 13th;
The letters received are to be issued to ECPA members on the 17th of September, together with a voting ballot, and we may receive your vote in one of the following three options:
Proxy-vote with an email of the associated member stating that the vote is to be issued by the named associate,
Please note that for these options the vote(s) should be issued to the electoral committee until the September the 13th at 20.00 hours, so that the results are presented in the GA to be held on the October the 4th.
Your participation is crucial for the vitality European Community Psychology.
Workshop Instructor: Susana Helm, PhD is a Community & Culture Psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai`i Mānoa, in Honolulu, Hawai`i, USA. Dr. Helm is an American of Italian descent – her grandmother moved to the US from Chiavenna early in the 20th century. PhotoVoice and photography for social action has been a useful tool in her community and academic work since the 1990s.
Member of IAPS- The Italian American Psychological Society.
Note: This is a 6-hour workshop to be conducted in English. Please feel free to bring snacks for yourself and to share. Please wear comfortable clothes, including walking shoes. Submit your photo before the workshop, and if you have questions, please contact me: PhotoVoice.Napoli@gmail.com
Part 1. 13.00 – 14.30, Introduction & Overview
This workshop will be introduced by Maria João Vargas-Moniz, President of ECPA and Professoressa Fortuna Procentese, Scientific Director of the Community Psychology Lab, University Federico II. PhotoVoice is a technique for promoting social justice and social action through community collaboration when local residents use photography to voice their concerns, identify solutions, and address power imbalances.
This workshop will provide participants an overview of the PhotoVoice technique, including “Photography 101.” Dr. Helm will share examples from her work in Honolulu. Workshop participants are referred to these articles, which may be read prior to the workshop:
Wang C & Burris MA. (1997). Photovoice. Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369-387. DOI: 10.1177/109019819702400309.
Wang CC & Redwood-Jones YA. (2001). Photovoice ethics. Perspectives from Flint Photovoice. Health Education & Behavior, 28(5), 560-572. doi: 10.1177/109019810102800504
Helm S, Lee W, Hanakahi V, Gleason K, McCarthy K, Haumana. (2015). Using photovoice with youth to develop a drug prevention program in a rural Hawaiian community. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 22(1), 1-26. doi: 10.5820/aian.2201.2015.1. PMCID: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4401743
Next, we will conduct a one-hour PhotoVoice session with workshop participants using the SHOWED facilitation technique based on the conference theme as it occurs in our personal and professional lives: dal conflitto e dall’odio alla cura e alla speranza (from conflict and hate to healing and hope).
Workshop participants are requested to submit one of their own photos as a jpeg prior to the workshop: Napoli@gmail.com
Jpegs should be no larger than 2mb and labeled with your name.
We will debrief the activity by highlighting what worked well, challenges, and critical questions.
Part 3. 16.30 – 19.00, Photography for Social Action, Social Justice
We will participate in a short (45 min) photo walk in the neighborhood where the workshop will be held, again guided by the conference theme. Please bring a digital camera, preferably a cel phone. Participants will complete a SHOWED worksheet for their photo (15 min). Then workshop participants will co-critique the aesthetic value of the photos as this pertains to the social action and social justice component of PhotoVoice (45 min). Good pictures tell better stories.
We will conclude with a discussion of how workshop participants may use PhotoVoice in their own work (45 min) – from needs assessment, to intervention development, to feasibility studies, to outcome evaluations, and other forms of research and knowledge co-construction.
This event is organized by the Department of Humanities and the Community Psychology Laboratory of the University Federico II, IAPS (Italian American Psychological Society), and “Psicologi per la Responsabilità Sociale” in collaboration with AIP (Associazione Italiana di Psicologia), CNOP, PSICAMP (Ordine degli Psicologi Nazionale e della Regione Campania), and SIPCO.
This conference will be characterized by a diversity of contributions in the form of oral communications, round tables, symposia, and cultural events as well as creative activities, aimed at a better understanding of rising global social-psychological and mental-health problems, highlighted, but not limited to, the migrant crisis, rising nationalism, stereotyping, bullying, and youth depression.
The intent of this conference is to generate a coherent understanding of these and related issues, and to highlight possible solutions.
We are pleased to invite you to attend this event by joining us in Naples on October 2019.
Cinzia Albanesi, and Elvira Cicognani, Alma Mater Studiorum (Italy), and Wolfgang Stark, Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (Germany) are involved in a Erasmus+ project that is aimed at establishing partnerships (knowledge alliances) between different European Higher Education Institutions and rural partners, with the aim to develop resources to implement Service Learning and support the development of social entrepreneurship in the rural communities.
The KoM of the project took place in Zagreb last March. Nives Mikelic Preradovic University of Zagreb, was a nice host, and welcomed the consortium and its coordinator Anabela Correia – Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, who finally had the chance to meet in person and start planning in detail the activities of the consortium which involves eight Higher Education Institutions (Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo (ESE) (Portugal); University College of Teacher Education Vienna (Austria); FFZG) (Croatia); Rotterdam School of Management – Erasmus University (The Netherlands); Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (Germany); Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain); Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania); University of Bologna (Italy) and eight rural partners (AJDeão (Portugal); LAG*5 (Croatia); LAG Ammersee (Germany); Kaunas district LAG (Lithuania); Galsinma (Spain); Stichting Schutsluis Alblasserdam (The Netherlands); Plenum (Austria); LAG L’Altra Romagna (Italy).
The next meeting of the consortium will be in Wien, September 9-10. If you want to know more on the project have a look at the project website or our Facebook and Instagram pages: Rural 3.0
