ACT to Build Leadership for Community Improvement

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ACT to Build Leadership for Community
Improvement

• Larry Dumka, Ph.D.
• School of Social and Family Dynamics
• ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
• Association for Contextual Behavioral Science
• World Conference IX
• July 13-15, 2011 - Parma, Italy

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ACT

• Has been focused on individual wellbeing
• More recently has addressed couple and family
  relationship wellbeing
• ACT can be applied to leadership development for
  community change

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Developmental Contextual Theory

• Developmental contexts affect individual and
  family wellbeing
• Government and nonprofit community organizations
  provide services that support wellbeing
• These organizations can be limited by systemic
  homeostatic forces that limit flexibility in
  implementing their missions

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The Community Action Research Experiences (CARE)
Program

• Year long program for university undergraduates
  to learn leadership by conducting an action
  research project to help a community nonprofit
  organization improve effectiveness
• Action research
• Driven by the organization
• Has immediate implications for organization
  change

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CARE Program Goals

1. Undergraduates increase psychological flexibility
   in process of leading a long term action research
   project
2. Community organizations increase flexibility in
   response to the results of the action research
   project (and increase evidence based practice)

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Leadership Principles

• Involves mobilizing unlike minded people to ACT
  collaboratively in the service of chosen values
• Requires psychological flexibility the capacity
  to
• contact the present moment fully
• and based on what the context affords
• change or persist in behavior that
• in the service of chosen values

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CARE Program

• Preparation Course (Jan May)
• Action research project data collection and
  analysis (May August)
• Leadership in the public arena (August
  December)

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Student Leadership Challenges

• Students have not confronted CARE project
  challenges before
• Face internal barriers
• Anxiety, self-doubt
• Ambiguity of tasks
• Procrastination
• Boredom
• Face external barriers
• Organization liaisons inconsistency
• Their client organizations dynamics procedures
• Data collection difficulties and delays

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CARE 1 Preparation Course January - May

• ACT focus
• Contact with the present moment
• Experiential class activities
• Values
• Students life domains
• Organizations
• Coping with diverse values (religion public
  policy)
• Committed Action
• Forming a collaborative obligation with a client
  organization

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CARE 2 Research Internship May - August

• ACT focus
• Acceptance
• Of experienced internal and external barriers
• Self as context
• Mindfulness activities
• Diffusion
• From experienced internal and external barriers

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CARE 3 Expanding Public Leadership August -
December

• Recycle ACT leadership principles
• Complete and present their project report to
  their organization
• Conduct and present a public policy analysis
  project

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Community Based Organizations Flexibility

• Organization systems are perturbed by the rigors
  of action research to increase their evidence
  based practice
• Organizations must decide how to change in
  response to results of the action research
  project they have requested

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CARE Program Evaluation

• Projects completed
• Data from community based organizations
• Benefits of projects for CBOs
• CBO actions in response to CARE projects
• CBO ratings of student researcher performance
• Data from students
• Student researcher ratings of CARE experience
• Going Public essays
• Theses completed