Community Psychology for me - it feels like home.
There's a lot of need for social change,
and that's something that we're pretty good at in Community Psychology.
In order to continue to be relevant institutions
we need to think beyond our walls
think beyond the boundaries of those walls.
To me, one of the most important aspects of Community Psychology is to focus on prevention.
I tend to think of myself as someone who moved from being an interventionist
to a preventionist.
Community Psychology is highly relevant to contemporary issues.
We're very interested in the ways in which different systems
at a variety of levels
whether it be government, policy, community, family, peers, school
all the way down to the individual
how all of those different systems impact on well-being.
There are many reasons to be excited about studying at Laurier.
The opportunity that students have to be involved in those organization and to really
close the gap between theory and practice.
What's really intriguing about community psychology 
to me is
the amount that we actually engage 
with community members
and understanding what their real and true needs are.
We look at their different strengths and we learn from them, and how we can collaborate
to build better processes, build better systems, change our policies
in order to achieve greater social justice.
Equality. That's really what it's about. Race and gender,
ability, sexual orientation, ethnicity
economic level, geographic location, and all of those social constructs.
Community Psychology tries to identify these systemic issues that can act as barriers to health and wellness.
I think a just health system starts within the community.
It starts with walkable, livable communities.
There are unharnessed and untapped resources in the community
that can be drawn upon to find solutions.
It's a privilege to do research here
and teaching and practice with our scholars
who are applied scientists working in the field.
The community psychologist can be a change agent
to make the changes that society knows we need
but has been struggling to do for many years.
Change needs to start somewhere, right?
And it needs to start with us.
Working towards a just world means seeing ourselves
as part of the problem and part of the solution
When you look at the kinds of issues that society is experiencing
there are huge challenges that community psychologists can make
an instrumental difference in helping to address.
This is about us. It's about me.
This is about each of you. It's about all of us.
These are the folks with the reality, these are the folks with experiences that we're trying to understand.
It just makes so much sense to engage communities in that process.
Yeah, it's very exciting actually and
it keeps me hopeful that we can actually create that change that's needed.
I think... I don't think I could get this anywhere else.
Studying Community Psychology at Laurier provides an opportunity
for collaborating for a more just world.
