Building bridges between organization development and community psychology: An Integrative model for multi-site community-based research

Sub-disciplines of psychology have historically focused on the development and evaluation of interventions addressing social issues. However, little has been published regarding the development and evaluation of organizational structures that successfully support such interventions. By bridging the gap between the fields of community psychology and organization development, organizational structures and processes can be designed to enhance the effectiveness of social change programs. This article describes the interface between these two areas of psychology by presenting an integrative model that combines community psychology principles and values with organization development methodologies. This framework has been used to evaluate the organizational structure of a multi-site community-based research project entitled Connect to Protect (C2P®) aimed at reducing HIV incidence among youth.