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Community Psychology & Participatory Action Research Program in El Quiché, Guatemala
In June 2013, M. Brinton Lykes and Megan Thomas, a project consultant, developed and facilitated a diploma program in community psychology and participatory action research in El Quiché, Guatemala.
The program, one contribution to the ongoing transnational collaborations sponsored by the Center, was designed in conjunction with INTRAPAZ, a research institute with social projection at the Jesuit University Rafael Landívar (URL) in Guatemala City. Thirty-three participants completed the two-week program, including four BC students (three undergraduates and a doctoral student), and six students and faculty from the URL’s Quiché campus. The other participants were Mayan youth and adults from the Quiché and surrounding regions, identified by colleagues of the Center as active community members with potential to enhance their leadership capacities through this program. The formal education of the participants ranged from several who had completed elementary school through others with Master’s degrees. The pedagogy of the workshop was participatory, complemented by topical lectures on violence, migration and power.
"I think the program was considered to be a big success locally by the regional URL campus in Santa Cruz del Quiché, by those in the capital who collaborated in the process, and by those of us affiliated with our Center. It strengthened leadership of the local project staff of our MHRP in Zacualpa. They were able to initiate contact with people in other communities from whom they learned and could better value their own work." - Brinton Lykes
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