GGFP - German Society for Research and Practice in Community Psychology
What is community psychology?
Community psychology is a quite young orientation to promote well-being and health by building up inner and outer resources. At the same time community psychology recognizes the causes of illnes in the lebenswelt of different people. Community psychology wants to form social wellfare and helping in a less deficit and more resource oriented manner. Most important is the promotion of social relationships and of preconditions, which are favourable for social support and bonding.
Which aims does community psychology pursue?
Community psychology as resource oriented intervention has to promote material, social and cultural resources of individuals and communities. Community psychology wants to strengthen individual and collective competences.
Community psychology is obliged to which results?
The care of resources and the refreshment of individual or collective competences is connected with basic human rights and with all necessary prerequisites in the environment: Receipt of our basic living conditions, social and economic justice, right to be different, political participation and social responsibility; conditions of a civil society.
What does community psychology do?
Community psychology commits these aims and orientations to the following obligations:
- analyses of ill making and beneficial conditions of life
- prevention and health promotion
- refreshment of social support systems and participative structures (empowerment)
- Building up conditions of life in social networks, work environments, school and leisure time
- Construction of individual and collective competences
- Qualifying social and psychological help in professionals and lay men and woman.
- Advancement of a pluralistic, participative oriented community psychology in practice and research.