You wrote in response to my post expressing my difficulty with the PsySR statement on Poverty/Inequality.

An example of the (many) advocacies in the direction of poverty/inequality that have arisen in PsySR over time is represented by the presentation of Isaac Prilleltensky at PsySR UDC 2003.  That was followed up by his student Scotney Evans at PsySR Lewis-and-Clark 2005, and remains an advocacy for economic justice within Div. 27.  The PsyACT website engages the problematic of community psychology in more depth than [the PsySR statement here]. The Vanderbilt project and now Psychologists Acting With Conscience Together (PsyACT) represent efforts to redesign community organizing by psychologists [so as] to engage "conscience" (including the ethic of 'do no harm') and [to do so] in a manner respectful to the individuals in the community.

At the Portland Conference, a group of us attended the breakfast table meeting of PsySR OpCom, and encouraged PsySR to embrace a step forward "with conscience" regarding the objectification and dignity of the client/survivors:  We saw that as a strategic step for engaging the problematic of poverty/inequality from the framework of social justice.  Present included myself, Roberta Sprague, Scotney Evans, Lynne Stewart, Sharon Clausen, and Sue Poole; Pat Risser also contributed.  We were denied and the reason from today's frame is transparent. PsySR at that time needed to engage fully the issue of torture and the embedded resistance of the APA and the Practice Directorate in particular.  That has been the focus since, with the embrace of the Ethical APA project being its special credit.  However, we are now coming to see that engaging economic justice "with conscience" is needful if the "State of Confusion" (in Bryant Welch's terms) that prevails with APA is to be challenged. 

In the early 60s, a model of "community psychology" evolved based on "community mental health centers." The critique of that experience led to Prilleltensky's Vanderbilt project.  In San Jose, CA this approach was strongly implemented:  Unfortunately the common outcome was "behavior managing the community" rather than strengthening the community in its struggle for economic and social justice.  The daughter of one of the top "community behavior managers," Allison Torres, herself with the lived experience of the social role arrangement of community mental health, gave the final performance at PsySR Boston 2010 - the Hawai'ian dance He Mele No Lilo.