Empowerment and Social Change I The Empowerment Perspective

Empowerment and Social Change I. The Empowerment Perspective

Definition • Power and control over important outcomes and resources. • An active rather than passive stance. • Positive mental health.

Levels of Analysis • Individual. • Key Concepts. • Self-efficacy and locus of control. • Participation in activities and organizations. • Research Examples. • Research repeatedly indicates that perceived control reduces the experience of stress and increases positive health and mental behaviors (Presson & Benassi, 1996; Yarcheski et al. , 2004). • Social activism may increase feelings of empowerment (Stone & Levine, 1985; Ramierez-Valles & Brown, 2003).

Levels of Analysis (cont…) • Organizational. • a. Key Concepts. • Organizations that help people gain control over there lives are empowering organizations. Those that influence policy-making decisions and allocation of resources to community members are empowered organizations. • b. Research Examples. • Empowering organizations. • Grawitch, Gottschalk, & Munoz, 2006

Levels of Analysis (cont…) • Empowered organizations. • Riger (1984). • Snow et al. (1980). • Community. • Key Concepts. • "An empowered community is one that initiates efforts to improve the community, responds to threats to quality of life, and provides opportunities for citizen participation. "

Empowerment and Social Change II. Strategies for stimulating social change

Social Change Strategies • Citizen Participation • =involvement in any organized activity in which the individual participates without pay in order to achieve a common goal. • Networking. • Consultants. • Professionals with special knowledge or skills to bring to bare on a problem. • Education and spread of information. • Critical awareness-an understanding of the larger social or political problem. • Public policy.

Strategies: Concepts and Research • Citizen Participation. • Predictors of social activism. • O'Neil et al. (1988). • Kelly and Breinlinger (1996). • Advantages. • Disadvantages.

Strategies: Concepts and Research (cont…) • Networking. • Umbrella organizations. • Clearinghouses. • Prevention First Incorporated • Advantages. • Disadvantages.

Strategies: Concepts and Research (cont…) • Consultants. • Services of community psychologists. • Needs assessment. • Program evaluation. • Advantages. • Disadvantages.

Strategies: Concepts and Research (cont…) • Education and spread of information. • Public policy.