European Community Psychology Association ECPA

ECPA represents a scientific and a professional community strongly committed to engage with communities and to build with them social change. Our community has developed practices grounded on a solid theoretical basis, and has given a substantial contribution to the identification of the core competencies of Community Psychologists. ECPA is continuously working to affirm the core values of Community Psychology in (psychological) science and society with an emphasis on the need for a socially engaged research on societal challenges (including climate change, migrations inequalities and other global crises). ECPA is committed to produce and offer to national and European Institutions  research that produces political and social impact and to offer local communities and community organizations support, advice and tools to improve their well being and their sustainable development. 

Main Goals of ECPA

  • To contribute to the theoretical advance of the discipline 
  • To engage scholars and practitioners into a critical debate of key concepts, methodologies and approaches used in community psychology.
  • To support the development of collaborative research networks between community psychologists and scholars from different disciplinary fields able to apply for European funds  
  • To stimulate European community psychologists to rethink methods, research and intervention practices increasing their sustainability for dealing with old and new societal challenges and contributing to sustainable development goals ( health, education, inequalities, discrimination, climate change)
  • To increase the capacity of community psychologists to produce political and societal impact, thus demonstrating that the way Community Psychologists approach research and intervention produces results that are relevant to elaborate new policies, directives, recommendations or reforms by policymakers.