Refortalecimiento: Beyond prevention, Empowerment and Intervention in an Impoverish Community in Puerto Rico
Refortalecimiento: Más allá de la prevención, el empoderamiento y la intervención en una comunidad empobrecida en Puerto Rico
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v31n1.88726Keywords:
community, empowerment, prevention, refortalecimiento, social community psychology (en)comunidad, empoderamiento, prevención, psicología social comunitaria, Refortalecimiento (es)
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Refortalecimiento is a strategy for transformation that started with a debate with the empowerment theory. We have been clarifying the notion of refortalecimiento from experiences at communities and academic’s scenarios. As a result, we need to re-imagine some of our concepts to address the consequences of inequalities. In this article, we will present some reflections about three concepts: intervention, prevention model, and empowerment theory based in an Intervention-Investigation (I-I) realized in a community with a group of mothers of children with disabilities (diverse abilities) in an impoverish community in Puerto Rico. We confirmed the need to reevaluate the impact of different concepts/perspectives operating within the project that undermine the implementation process. We learned that the beauty of this process resides on the reciprocity and the fortalezas (strengths) that takes place within all the people involved. But we also find out neoliberal values as: individualism, competition, and everyone for themselves presented great obstacles to overcome discrimination and disparities.
How to cite this article: Vázquez-Rivera, C. & Rojas-Livia, J. (2021). Refortalecimiento: Beyond prevention,
empowerment and intervention in an improverish community in Puerto Rico. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 31 (1), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v31n1.88726
Refortalecimiento es una estrategia de transformación que inició como un debate con la teoría del empoderamiento. Hemos continuado clarificando la noción de refortalecimiento desde experiencias en escenarios comunitarios y académicos. Como resultado, se entendió que es necesario re-imaginar algunos de nuestros conceptos para abordar las consecuencias de las desigualdades. En este artículo, presentaremos algunas reflexiones acerca de tres conceptos: intervención, modelo de prevención y la teoría del empoderamiento basado en una Intervención-Investigación (I-I) realizada con un grupo de madres de niños y niñas con impedimentos (habilidades diferentes) en una comunidad empobrecida en Puerto Rico. Se confirmó la necesidad de reevaluar el impacto de los diferentes conceptos/perspectivas operando dentro del proyecto que socaban el proceso de implementación. Aprendimos que la belleza de este proceso reside en la reciprocidad y las fortalezas que tienen lugar en todas las personas involucradas. Pero también identificamos que, valores neoliberales, tales como: individualismo, competencia y cada quien para sí mismo, presentan grandes obstáculos para superar la discriminación y las desigualdades.
Cómo citar este artículo: Vázquez-Rivera, C. & Rojas-Livia, J. (2021). Refortalecimiento: Beyond prevention,
empowerment and intervention in an improverish community in Puerto Rico. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 31 (1), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v31n1.88726
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1. Carlos Vázquez-Rivera, Jacquelinee Rojas-Livia. (2022). Psicología social comunitaria: A medio siglo de una disciplina indisciplinada. Revista Puertorriqueña de Psicologia, 33(1) https://doi.org/10.55611/reps.3301.10.
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