Social justice and cultural relevance have become increasingly popular topics in the prevention literature. Scholarship on these topics is also becoming more commonplace throughout the gamut of mental health professions, suggesting that an agenda which includes social justice and cultural relevance may be a significant trend in the 21st century. This trend is long overdue. Many prevention scholars have argued that cultural relevance is a hallmark of all effective prevention programs (Hage, Romano, Conyne, Kenny, Matthews, Schwartz, Waldo, 2007; Vera, 2000). Engaging in democratic, collaborative processes of identifying and responding to community needs is one prerequisite of culturally relevant prevention efforts aimed at promoting social justice.To enhance the readers' ability to understand, design, and implement social justice-driven, culturally relevant prevention efforts, we have reviewed the relevant literature, both theoretical and empirical, on social justice and cultural relevance within the field of prevention. Additionally, we have described concrete examples of programs that attempt to address issues of social injustice and cultural relevance. These examples are based on the authors' real world experiences engaging in culturally responsive prevention guided by a social justice agenda. Next, we aspired to provide opportunities for conversation about some of the more challenging aspects of infusing social justice and cultural relevance into oneAEs prevention efforts. We have provided a series of learning exercises to promote these conversations. Our overall goal is to provide the reader with practical information and discussion of real world challenges and opportunities, all intended to help the reader to discover and dialogue about the complexities inherent in engaging in culturally-relevant, social justice- oriented prevention practice and science.
Arthur M. Horne is currently Dean of the College of Education and Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia, Athens. He obtained his PhD in counseling and Educational Psychology from Southern Illinois university, and his masters and bachelor's from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is widely known in the area of bullying, working with youth, boys, and prevention. Robert K. Conyne is Professor Emeritus from the University of Cincinnati, is a licensed psychologist, clinical counselor and fellow of the Association for Specialists in Group work (ASGW) and the American Psychological Association. He has 36 years of professional experience as a University professor and department head, psychologist, counselor, administrator, consultant and trainer. Current work finds him volunteering as an American Red Cross disaster mental health specialist and service as a military family life consultant. He has received many awards, including Eminent Career Award from AGSW, Lifetime achievement award in Prevention from APA, Distinguished Alumni Award of Distinction from Purdue University and is designated a Soros International Scholar. He is 2008 President of APA's division of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy. With over 200 scholarly publications and presentations, including 1 0 books in his areas of expertise (group work, prevention, and ecological counseling).
Chapter 1. Theoretical Conceptualizations of Cultural Relevance and Social Justice - Elizabeth M. Vera & Maureen E. Kenny Chapter 2. Research on Culturally Relevant, Social Justice-Oriented Prevention Efforts Determining Culturally Relevancy Chapter 3. Application: Mechanisms for Creating Culturally Relevant Social Justice-Oriented Prevention Programs Chapter 4. Learning Exercises
