“Connect to a Practitioner” - Tools and Strategies for Bridging the Academic/Practice Gap in Training

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Abstract

Each year a large number of students, both doctoral and masters level, graduate and enter into practice careers. These students often have had little exposure to practicing community psychologists – and tend to lose their “community psychology identity,” and adopt the identity of the field in which they are employed. A recent survey of current graduate students (2013) conducted by the SCRA Practice Council and Council for Education Programs (CEP) showed that the Community Psychology Competencies most related to practice (e.g. resource development, small and large group processes, and community organizing and advocacy) were less likely than others to be emphasized in academic training. There is a clear need to connect students with practicing community psychologists in a wide range of settings to increase exposure to practice mentors, and bring practice-based skills into the classroom.

The current effort to bridge this gap is the “Connect to a Practitioner” online guidebook. This community-produced resource is an attempt to connect masters and doctoral level graduate programs and current students to community psychology practitioners around the world. By exposing students to a wide range of practice role models, settings, career paths, and applied skill sets we can: a) better prepare students for practice careers, and b) improve the ways in which practitioners relate to their community psychology identity.

The guide is designed to accomplish this in several ways: professors can invite practitioners, identified by topic area and competency expertise, geography, and modality, to teach applied skills as part of a formal training curriculum. Students can directly reach out to practitioners for mentorship or skill-building opportunities.

The guide recognizes that graduate programs have limited resources, and cannot teach the 18 practice competencies without outside resources. It is an attempt to create access and share knowledge with the next generation of practitioners, while bolstering graduate programs.

This session is co-sponsored by the SCRA Practice Council and the Council for Education Programs (CEP).

Sub Unit

• SCRA Biennial Meeting

Presenters

• Ashley Anglin, Atlantic Health System

• Sharon Johnson-Hakim, Atlantic Health System

• Thomas Wolff, Tom Wolff & Associates

• Sylvie Taylor, Antioch University Los Angeles

• Raymond Legler, National-Louis University