Participatory Organizational Change in Community‐Based Health and Human Services: From Tokenism to Political Engagement

Abstract

Community psychologists have long worked with community-based human service organizations to build participatory processes. These efforts largely aim at building participatory practices within the current individual-wellness paradigm of human services. To address collective wellness, human service organizations need to challenge their current paradigm, attend to the social justice needs of community, and engage community participation in a new way, and in doing so become more openly political. We use qualitative interviews, focus groups, organizational documents, and participant observation to present a comparative case study of two organizations involved in such a process through an action research project aimed at transforming the organizations' managerial and practice paradigm from one based on first-order, ameliorative change to one that promotes second-order, transformative change via strength-based approaches, primary prevention, empowerment and participation, and focuses on changing community conditions. Four participatory tensions or dialectics are discussed: passive versus active participation, partners versus clients, surplus powerlessness versus collective efficacy, and reflection/learning versus action/doing.

Los desafíos de la integración en el País Vasco: una perspectiva psicosocial

“…A pesar del obstáculo que supone la inexistencia del derecho a voto para las personas migrantes, la apertura de espacios de participación social reales es una de las mejores herramientas con las que contamos para promover la integración de las personas y su bienestar (Bess et al, 2009). De esta manera, la intervención debe reconstruir el tejido social, lo que implica actuaciones en los diferentes niveles de análisis (Villasante, 1984):…”

Does the presence of member assemblies in grant-giving foundations affect levels of stakeholder engagement in mission reporting? Evidence from Italian banking foundations

“…Nonetheless, some studies (Bess et al, 2009;Mandel and Qazilbash, 2005;Wellens and Jegers, 2014) have shown the positive effects that beneficiary engagement can bring to the NPO to the beneficiaries involved in strategy and policy development, and to the beneficiaries as a stakeholder category. These positive outcomes include increased effectiveness of services, the better achievement of the NPO's goals, the strengthening of its legitimacy, the improvement of NPO board member commitment, organisational learning and growth, the increase of the organisation's social capital, and many other factors.…”

Addressing health inequities through social inclusion: The role of community organizations

“…To close the gap in health inequities, social inclusion through community participation is specifically identified as a strategy. Through shared power and inclusion in decisions that affect their lives, community members gain a voice and opportunities to make decisions in their best interest and that of their communities (Bess, Prilleltensky, Perkins, & Collins, 2009). …”

“…Participation alone does not erase inequities in power and resources. Community members' participation is rendered inadequate in situations when they are given an opportunity to voice their opinions but are not given any decision-making power, resulting in tokenism rather than citizen power (Arnstein, 1969;Bess et al, 2009). In addition, whereas community organizations might be acting externally in accordance with concepts of inclusion, they might be reproducing organizational practices of inequity internally (Barros, 2010).…”