History of Community Psychology Timeline

The Boston Conference, is also known as Swampscott Conference, since it took place in Swampscott Massachusetts. Psychologists gathered at this very first meeting to discuss that their needs to be more focus on communities and social change in order to address mental health concerns and their well-being (Cherry, 2019).

"Applied psychologists contributed to the subsequent formation of the American Psychological Associations Division of Community Psychology in 1967, and were consistently elected as officers to the divisions Executive Committee for its first 8 years" (Scott & Wolfe, 2015).

He was trained as a clinical and child psychologist and did prevention based work. He provided children with the proper coping skills to handle stressors. He took pride in helping children and their well-being.

In 1976 he was just out of graduate school and was hired as a staff psychologist by Community Mental Health Center in Chesterfield Virginia (Scott & Wolfe, 2015). They focused on mental health services for a undeserved population and provided ways in strengthening the community.

John Morgan received the SCRA award for Distinguished Contributions to Practice in Community Psychology in 1990.

When Reagan was elected president funding for social programs and CMHCs were put on the back burner. The funding for these things were switched over to state block grants. This gave states the ability to set their own funding agenda and removing NIMH (Scott & Wolfe, 2015). Within a year prevention and education mostly disappeared.

This conference began in South Carolina and was the first community psychology conference that had a open invitation, meaning any practitioner could go. This allowed everyone the chance to not only participate but also come together and learn from others (Scott & Wolfe, 2015).

This book discussed evidenced based prevention programs such as, prenatal/early infancy, substance abuse prevention and separation and divorce programs.

Maurice Elias developed an evidence based school based program aimed at enhancing students decision making skills (Scott & Wolfe, 2015). He was a recipent of the SCRA award in 1993 and also received the 1998 SCRA Ethnic Minority Mentoring Award.

The attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, which soon after followed the war, created a crisis for mental health. Funding was tied up in the war and not in community health. Which we all know during this particular time, health as a community was definitely needed.

SCRA hadnt ever been revised up until this point. They wanted to focus on taking more action. The new mission became for "Community Psychology to be guided by 4 principles: global in nature; use of multi-sectional, interdisciplinary partnerships and approaches; a focus on creating policies informed by Community Psychology and social justice values; and research and action that promote social justice" (Scott & Wolfe, 2015)

Greg Meissen not only taught students and conducted research, he also ran a nonprofit called the Self-Help Network that connected individuals and conducted research within those groups. This research showed why certain groups thrived and their true nature of their leadership (Scott & Wolfe, 2015).

He served as a foundig member of the Community Psychology Practice Counsel from 2005-2012. He received the SCRA Distinguished Contribution to Service Award. He helped create a pathway for people to recovery, which is seen to this day in self help groups.