2A-I | Teaching Advocacy in Every Course and Beyond: A 2020 Primer/ 2A-II | Professionalism needs advocacy: Bringing psychology to our legislators
*Please note that this session consists of two separate 45-minute presentations. Attendees must be present for the full 1.5-hour session in order to receive CE credit.
I. Teaching Advocacy in Every Course and Beyond: A 2020 Primer (Kathi Borden, Ph.D., Karen Studwell, JD)
Advocacy, particularly legislative advocacy, is an essential channel through which psychologists can influence society and work for social justice. While some programs teach public policy and advocacy courses, many do not, perhaps due to a lack of faculty confidence and training in this area. We need to provide students with essential knowledge and skills in advocacy, and get our students into the habit of advocating for social justice for clients and others. In this new presentation, I will start with legislative and advocacy basics, and address ways in which psychologists can get involved in various forms of advocacy. Participants will generate ideas about when, where, and how to advocate for social justice, and how to help psychology students learn this vital skill.
Learning Objectives:
1) Participants will be able to describe the process by which legislation is passed in the United States.
2) Participants will be able to list at least two guidelines or recommendations when advocating for legislative change.
3) Participants will generate at least one idea for an assignment they can use in their programs to teach students about social justice advocacy
II. Professionalism needs advocacy: Bringing psychology to our legislators (Shelly Smith-Acuna, Ph.D., Lavita Nadkarni, Ph.D.)
Psychologists have created social impact in significant areas such as school desegregation and same-sex marriage, yet training programs rarely prepare students for this important professional function. This workshop will provide an overview to recent experiments in preparing students to work with legislators, including coursework, workshops, and community events. We will use this foundation to allow participants to develop action plans for their own institutions. One example used in the presentation will be a recent Mental Health Education Open House for Legislators, which challenged us to "develop strategies for informing our local community about the work we are doing," clearly related to the conference theme of expanding our impact. We will share successes and challenges in connecting with legislators, as well as our strategies for moving this work forward. Further, we will discuss using resources from our schools and our state organizations to amplify the impact of our work and create more substantial opportunities for social responsiveness.
Learning Objectives:
1) Participants will be able to list the necessary components of preparing students to be legislative advocates.
2) Participants will be able to create their own action plan for their own program/institution.
3) Participants will be able to discuss potential challenges to legislative advocacy and to plan for how to navigate around them.