Research can play an important role in the promotion of community and societal change. Our research team is particularly interested in how research can inform action to promote a more comprehensive and effective response to gender-based violence and related complex social issues. Our aim is twofold: to engage research questions that advance scholarship on community, organizational and systems change, while also working collaboratively with community groups to inform their change efforts by addressing the research questions of most interest to them. Our partners have included, for example, the Champaign County Mental Health (CCMHB) and Developmental Disabilities (CCDDB) Boards, the Illinois Family Violence Coordinating Councils (IFVCC), Courage Connection (a local domestic violence program), Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA), Illinois Violence Prevention Authority (IVPA; now part of ICJIA), the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), and the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA). We have also had the opportunity to collaborate on our own campus with the University of Illinois Women’s Resources Center and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.
Our research is anchored primarily in the field of community psychology, a field of study which emphasizes building strengths and capacities, fostering empowerment, engaging in multiple levels of analysis with attention to social, economic, cultural, historical, and contextual influences on health and well-being, and promotes the pursuit of research to facilitate social justice and social change. [For more information see https://www.scra27.org/ and https://www.communitypsychology.com/.]
To join our team, research out to allenne@illinois.edu. We routinely have undergraduate research assistants participate in our research efforts and would welcome your participation.
Dr. Allen will be reviewing graduate student applications to begin in Fall of 2021.
