Introduction to community psychology in Canada: Past, present, and future.

Abstract

The introduction to the special section on community psychology in Canada provides background information about the field in Canada and provides summaries of the four articles and the commentary that comprise the issue. The articles address (a) theory, research, and practice in community psychology; (b) training in community psychology; (c) community psychology practice; and (d) a vision for the future of community psychology in Canada. These articles highlight the many contributions of Canadian community psychologists to a field that is growing throughout the world to address pressing social problems. Keywords: community psychology, community training, community research, community practice, vision Community psychology (CP) has a lengthy history in Canada. Pols (2000) traced the roots of community psychology to the Psychology Department at the University of Toronto, beginning in the mid 1920s. Moreover, the term community psychology was first used in 1951 by University of Toronto psychology professor William Line (Babarik, 1979). In spite of this history, community psychology remains a marginalized specialty in Canadian psychology with a relatively small network of researchers and practitioners. In this context, the special section in the current issue of Canadian Psychology was developed to inform Canadian psychologists about the many and varied contributions of this subdiscipline of psychology, as well as the current status of community psychology in Canada. The special section is a project developed by participants at the 2008 Quebec-Ontario Community Psychology Conference. The conference, held biennially since 2002, involves participation of faculty and students from Universite Laval, University of Ottawa, Universite de Quebec a Montreal, and Wilfrid Laurier University. All of these universities offer training in community psychology. While some articles on community psychology have been previously published in Canadian Psychology (Davidson, 1981; WalshBowers, 1 998), much of the literature on community psychology in Canada has been published elsewhere, including a previous special issue on community psychology (Tefft, 1 982) and a recent historical and substantive review (Nelson, Lavoie, & Mitchell, 2007). In developing the project, participants in the 2008 biennial conference believed that it was important that the work be presented in Canadian Psychology, the flagship journal of Canadian psychology. There are indications that community psychology as a subdiscipline of psychology is growing outside of Canada. The Society of Community Research and Action, which represents Division 27 of the American Psychological Association, has approximately 900 members. In addition, there has been increasing internationalization of community psychology globally with self-identified community psychologists in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Central America, South America, and Japan (Reich, Riemer, Prilleltensky, & Montero, 2007; Vazquez Rivera, Figueroa Rodriguez, Pacheco Bou, & Perez-Jimenez, 2009). International community psychology conferences have been held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1996; in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1998; and in Puebla, Mexico, in 2010. In Canada, there is a small committed group of community psychologists, as is reflected in attendees at the Quebec-Ontario conference and the membership of Section 3, the community psychology section of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), which was started in 1982. In light of the many contemporary complex social issues facing Canadian society - such as underdeveloped early childhood education and prevention, mental health problems in the population, economic and social marginalization of First Nations people, and integration challenges faced by new immigrants - the contributions that community psychology can make to social programs and policies to address these issues on behalf of Canadian psychology are as important today as they were when the subdiscipline first developed in Canada. …