The Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA), Division 27 of the American Psychological Association, serves many different disciplines that focus on community research and action. Our members are committed to promoting health and empowerment and to preventing problems in communities, groups, and individuals.

The SCRA Mission: The Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) is an international organization devoted to advancing theory, research, and social action. Its members are committed to promoting health and empowerment and to preventing problems in communities, groups, and individuals.

Four broad principles guide SCRA:

• Community research and action requires explicit attention to and respect for diversity among peoples and settings;
• Human competencies and problems are best understood by viewing people within their social, cultural, economic, geographic, and historical contexts;
• Community research and action is an active collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and community members that uses multiple methodologies;
• Change strategies are needed at multiple levels in order to foster settings that promote competence and well-being.

SCRA serves many different disciplines that focus on community research and action. Our members have found that, regardless of the professional work they do, the knowledge and professional relationships they gain in SCRA are invaluable and invigorating. Membership provides new ideas and strategies for research and action that benefit people and improve institutions and communities.

There are SCRA Interest Groups in the following areas:

• Aging: The Aging interest group focuses on the productive role of aging in the community and the prevention of mental health problems in the elderly.
• Children & Youth: The Children and Youth interest group facilitates the interests of child and adolescent development in high risk contexts, especially the effect of urban poverty and community structures on child and family development
• Community Health: The Community Health interest group focuses on health promotion, disease prevention, and the health care service delivery issues as they relate to the community.
• Disabilities: The Disability Action Group promotes the understanding of the depth and diversity of disabilities issues in the community that are ready for research and action; it influences community psychologists' involvement in policy and practices that enhance self-determination, personal choice, and full inclusion in the community for people with disabilities.
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender: The LGBT interest group increases awareness of the need for community research and action related to issues that impact LGBT people; and serves as a mechanism for communication, collaboration, and support among community psychologists who are either interested in research/service/policy related to LGBT people and communities, and/or who identify as LGBT.
• Prevention & Promotion: The Prevention and Promotion interest group seeks to enhance the development of prevention and promotion research, foster active dialogue about critical conceptual and methodological action and implementation issues, and promote rapid dissemination and discussion of new developments and findings in the field.
• Rural: The Rural interest group is devoted to highlighting issues of the rural environment that are important in psychological research, service, and teaching.
• School Interventions: The School Intervention interest group addresses theories, methods, knowledge base, and setting factors pertaining to prevention and health promotion in school.
• Self-help/Mutual Support: The Self-Help/Mutual Support interest group is an international organization of researchers, self-help leaders, and policy makers that promotes research and action related to self-help groups and organizatio