PAWNY's Anti-Racism Task Force was formed in June 2020 in response to the nationwide call to examine and ameliorate the deleterious effects of racism on the mental and physical health of People of Color and in particular, African-Americans in the United States. The purpose of this task force is to utilize our unique position as psychologists within a regional professional organization to promote equity, inclusion and increased access to culturally responsive mental health resources in our community.
We share the belief put forward by the American Psychological Association (APA) that diversifying the field of psychology is a moral imperative and a necessity to meet the collective needs of our society. To this end, we are exploring ways to mitigate local pipeline issues that are barriers to diversifying the field of psychology in Western New York and making changes to our organizational culture in line with the goal of becoming a more welcoming and supportive network for psychologists of color to be a part of.
Discussions among professional colleagues are an integral component of personal and professional growth. Integrating formal and informal discussions exploring the impacts of race on our experiences and the experiences of our clients is critical in evolving our practices to be more culturally responsive, humble and inclusive.
To do better we have to know better. Our educational goal is about raising the social consciousness of the psychologists in our network through education.
In addition to being a professional network, PAWNY is an organization with a public presence and can serve as a source of information dissemination and referrals for the public. The ARTF in conjunction with the Community Outreach Committee has been working to advance this organizational goal so that we can live into and up to our organizational motto: Cultivating connectivity. Elevating inclusivity. Partnering with the community we serve.
Incredible assets already exist in the communities most impacted by marginalization and mental health disparities. We need not and should not reinvent the wheel nor will we make assumptions about what is needed or wanted. We will listen, plug-in where desired/appropriate and invest in relationships with community members and organizations.