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Editorial

Special Issue on Community Psychology Practice Competencies: A Global Perspective

This new special issue of the Global Journal contains several very important articles on core competencies in community psychology practice. In this special issue of the GJCPP, you will find 7 peer-reviewed articles, a featured Tools of the Trade, a featured Book Review, and 4
featured Videos -- all with relevance to the development of core competencies in community psychology practice. The Guest Editors for this issue include Susan Wolfe, Victoria Chien Scott, and Tiffeny Jimenez.

The first article is an overview from the Guest Editors and provides some context for the discussion that takes place. The second article provides a critical analysis of the competency approach, and whether this is a distraction from good practice. A third discusses the development of core competencies with undergraduate and graduate programs in community
psychology in Italy, focusing on how these competencies during the training process lead to the ability to develop more effective interventions.

The fourth article focuses on the use of a core competency approach in Egypt, and how the needs of the local situation result in the adaptation of the competencies. The fifth article in the list focuses on the Community Tool Box as a resource for the development and refinement of
competencies among community psychology practice professionals. The sixth article discusses the core competencies in terms of health care and community health promotion in the United States, with lessons and ideas about how this is important in communities more broadly. The final two articles in this issue provide a discussion of the use of "curriculum mapping" as a tool to assess and integrate the competencies in Part 1; and then how they are applied in a course evaluation context in Part 2.

In addition, we provide a community coalition simulation exercise, incorporating and using the competencies relevant in this context. This exercise discusses the competencies, and provides an overview of integration of multiple competencies in a coalition development exercise. A book review is also provided. The book "Activism that Works" is reviewed by one of the guest editors, and is a compilation of 86 activists and 9 organizations.

The guest editors included a video from the SCRA Video Contest that provides an important and interesting approach to integrating the arts into community psychology research and practice, with an example of how this was done in the context of homelessness.

Finally, we present three videos from the interviews provided by Jim Kelly in the mid-1990's, each of which have ideas and recommendations for core competencies in community psychology practice and community research. The first is an interview of Ira Iscoe. The second is an interview of Marie Jahoda (Part 1), which provides an interesting perspective on competencies and community psychology. The third video is an interview with Ed Wellin,
a sociologist and community-oriented anthropologist that spent considerable time studying community life in Peru. More of these videos can be seen on our Vimeo.com channel (http://vimeo.com/gjcpp/videos).


Author(s)

Vincent T Francisco Vincent T Francisco

Dr. Vincent T Francisco is Associate Professor of Public Health Education at UNC Greensboro (USA), and Lead Editor of the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice.


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Keywords: community psychology practice, gjcpp