Hello Community Psychology network,

A message from the London network below. Please email me if you want to be added to the London email list.

Thank you for all the interesting messages that come through this mailing list.

Have great days!
Sally (London Network Coordinator)


A couple of interesting events as the dark nights come upon us and we bed down for Winter!

After that a fantastic summary of our last network session written by Abdullah. Please email me or Abdullah Mia if you would like further notes from the last London network session.

So.. 

A reminder of our next London Community Psychology Network session. All Welcome!!

~~ Thursday 31st October 2013 - 6.30pm - 8.30/9pm  

-  we are invited to visit the Youth and Community Centre of DOST ~~

"Dost means friend in several languages. Dost Centre for Young Refugees & Migrants aims to improve the quality of life for young refugees and migrants aged 11 - 25.  The Dost  approach has been developed over 12 years in response to the needs of children who have arrived in the UK alone, seeking protection from violence, abuse and persecution in their home countries. 

http://dostcentre.org/

The session will include a talk entitled:  'Dost: a 360 degree community approach'

Helena Kaliniecka (Dost's Service Manager & Clinical Psychologist) and Jessica Muir (CAMHS Practitioner) and hopefully a few of the young people who go to the DOST centre will be telling us about Dost's work in the community with young refugees and migrants. They will explore the different ways that they have tried to create a relationship-based, collaborative and culturally relevant approach. 

It's here... Trinity Centre, East Avenue, Manor Park, E12 6SG (less than five minutes from East Ham tube station).

Please do come and support their amazing work and spread the word!

And..

An advert below for an event held by the Activism in Sociology Forum.. sounds like an event that overlaps with Community Psychology and it would be good to have some of us there to support them with Community Psychology ideas. The web links have contact details. If people want to go, let me know and I can let each other know so we can go together!

Dear All,

Please find below details of the first Activism in Sociology Forum meeting. The Activism in Sociology Forum is part of the British Sociological Association but was set up in order to bring together academics, both within sociology and other disciplines, as well as activists, community groups and others interested in/working on social justice projects. Our aim is to aid people to connect with one another and provide a means of collective action. Moreover we are deeply concerned about the spread of neoliberal thought and the implementation of government policies that increase inequality and disadvantage among the poorest and most vulnerable in society. It is our aim, therefore, to bring together a diverse range of voices to mobilize against this.

Our first event is on Saturday 9 November 2013, Senate House Library, London. We are currently inviting submissions for participation as well as encouraging as many as possible to attend the event and add their ideas and passion to the discussions.

The full call for participation can be read here http://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/57538/ASF_Flyer_091113.pdf

We hope to make this event a busy and lively day of conversation, planning and action. Even if you don't want to present a formal paper we encourage you to come along and put forward any ideas, problems, theories, etc. The day is free and lunch will be provided. Booking is open on the BSA Events pagehttp://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/KeyEvents.aspx

Please let us know if you have access requirements of any form so that we can accommodate you.

We look forward to seeing as many as possible at the event,

With best wishes

Sarah Burton
BSA Activism in Sociology Forum Co-Convenor
ESRC funded PhD Candidate, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Finally, a review by Abdullah of our last session:

Dear all,

My sincere apologies in taking over a month to get this to you, I hope you will find the notes useful in some way.  I have attached copies of the notes as they were taken, so the material is as close to what people said and wrote down as possible. 

Prior to running the session, which focussed on "Ideals, Intentions and Utility: are holding Community Psych values enough?" I was aware that I had not connected with others around our shared values and hopes.  I felt this was something that was important for us to be able to develop our interest and energy into something which was less academic and more action oriented.  Furthermore, my hope was that through facilitating this session, we would be able to talk about our own practices, and learn from each other.  Furthermore, my hope was that this could be done in a fun relaxed way….or as relaxing as a twist on speed dating can be!

The session was co-facilitated by three pairs of members with the rest of the group split into three. Each pair of co-facilitators remained seated at the table, whilst the other three groups rotated round the tables.  Each table had a different discussion point regarding an aspect of Community Psychology; ‘ideals/hopes’, ‘intentions’ and ‘utility’ where the group and facilitators were able to talk and exchange ideas and thoughts.  The discussions were also facilitated by jaffa cakes, ginger biscuits and pink wafers!  The material from these discussions can be found in the attachments.

Following the ‘speed-dating’ the group came together to discuss what had been shared, and spent some time reflecting on what resonated from the discussions.  Some of these reflections and discussions are highlighted below

The process was a useful reminder of the principles of community psychology, colleagues spoke of the inspiration of hearing about imaginative and creative work of others.

Helpful to think of how community psychology principles can move from theory to practice with specific examples.

Colleagues who worked in the NHS also felt hopeful that community psychology practice and principles could also be used in their practice.

Colleagues also felt that they were able to clarify their ideas of what community psychology ‘is’, therefore they were able to think of more tangible practices as opposed to it being theoretical.

The discussion developed into thinking about how we can also shape our future meetings, and how they would find this helpful.  The themes are highlighted below

The group in general felt that they would like a broader representation of people, as currently psychology was represented strongly.

Their hopes shared to build our own community psychology community, in particular by inviting a friend who may not be a psychologist to come to the next meeting

To group felt that by also holding it a University building we may also be restricting access, and/or contributing to an idea that community psychology was an academic pursuit, therefore it would be helpful to hold meetings outside of University buildings.

The group agreed another way of increasing a diverse membership, learning more about community psychology projects and possibly contributing to joint work was to invite community groups and possibly have themed evenings. We could in this way think of valuing and supporting different sets of expertise. 

The group also hoped that in doing so, this would broaden the groups interest further than ‘mental health’.

I hope this summary provides an accurate reflection of what was spoken about.  I personally left the meeting feeling comforted in knowing that my ideas about community psychology were also shared on some level by others.  Furthermore that it was a safe space to share my worries about getting community psychology ‘right’ and whether my practice was ‘good enough’.  I am still wondering about what I as a psychologist can bring (if anything!) to some of the great projects that are out there, but I am pleased to know these thoughts are also shared by my colleagues.

I hope those who attended found it to be a supportive meeting, and thank you to the great co-facilitators who helped the ‘speed dating’ run a lot smoother.  Once again my sincere apologies in the delay for getting these out, I know many of you were interested in how the session went.

  Best wishes

 Abdullah

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