IComPA Symposium
Kia ora e te whānau,
We presented at the Institute of Community Psychology Aotearoa (IComPA) Symposium this past weekend at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre. The mission of IComPA is to promote the application of psychology and related knowledge to enhancing social and cultural justice within Aotearoa. The theme of the symposium was ‘Connect. Connect us with what you are doing in your community; connect with colleagues; connect with a confluence of ideas about community psychology.’
Heather and I are both registered community psychologists, so putting in abstracts for the symposium seemed like a no brainer. We got both accepted, and so flew down to Ōtautahi for the weekend to present, meeting our colleague Izak, who lives down in Christchurch.
The first presentation I led was titled ‘Coming home: Understanding health and wellbeing risks, and protective factors, for Māori veterans and whānau pre, during and post military to civilian transition. I talked briefly about the project, the research process, and gave an overview of our draft findings. I then ended with a brief look at the short story case studies we are in the process of developing.
Our second presentation was led by Heather alongside Izak, and they talked about the evaluation we are conducting on behalf of SSAANZ–the Soldiers, Sailors, Aviators Association of New Zealand. SSAANZ is a community organisation which aims to “improve the way serving and ex-serving people interact with each other through outdoor pursuits, adventurous activity, and sporting endeavour.” A variety of events are run throughout the year by SSAANZ, such as hunting, fishing, and hiking events.
We were connected to SSAANZ through a member of our research team, Hooky, who also sits on the management team of SSAANZ and is good friends with the founder, Dave Benfell. Heather talked about the origins of SSAANZ and the interviews/data collection conducted so far, and Izak talked about his personal experience on a SSAANZ fishing event and the interviews he conducted on the ground with event participants.
Overall, it was a very supportive environment, and affirming to be in the room with like-minded people who could see the value of our research. While a long day, it was rewarding and I know I got a lot out of the day.