1. Liberatory Community Practice:
Lessons Learned from a
Puerto Rican/Latino Community
Michele A. Kelley
Alejandro Luis Molina
Michael Rodríguez Muñiz
Robyn Wheatley
Dennis Poole
Chicago, February 17, 2006

2. Introduction
Increasing attention to Community Level of
analyses in interventions and research (PHDCN,
CDC, NIH)
Multiple determinants of health disparities and
social inequalities (McKinlay, 2000)
Community as a moderator and mediator of
outcomes (CDC, NIH initiatives)
Relevance of local ecology in problem
specification and in tailoring interventions
(Trickett, 2004; Anderson, 2003; Kelley, 2005)

3. Purpose of Presentation
• To provide a case example of a community’s approach to
transforming and healing itself, despite persistent “macro
level” social inequities, e.g., racism, classism and
oppression.
• To relate this approach to contemporary discourses and
theories among community and health professions
scholars.
• To identity the relational and power aspects of conducting
cross-cultural community work
• To suggest new directions for Social Work / Health
Professions education, research and practice in the
Liberatory tradition.
3

4. Exemplary Projects:
Community-driven response to the HIV
AIDS crisis & a participatory democracy
project
– Acts of resistance (Prilleltensky, 2003)
– Role of social (Hawe, 2000) & cultural capital (Ramos-Zayas,
2004)
– Built environment, community resilience & health (Galea,
2005; Davis 2005)
– Cultural affirmation and identity vs Discrimination (Pérez,
2004; Hovey,1996; Szalacha, 2003)
– Positive youth development & social political development
(Watts, 2003; Zimmerman,1999)
– Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) for
“evidence-based” practice (Trickett,2004)
– Culturally Sensitive Interventions (CSIs) vs. Empirically
4

5. Definition of Community
• Healthy community, continually renewing itself, provides
resources and supports for attainment of full potential of all
members (WHO, 1986)
• Community as ethnic enclave is the emotional ecosystem of its
collective members. (Fullilove, 1994)
• Community has three aspects: compositional, contextual &
collective. (MacIntyre, 2002)
• Chicago Puerto Rican community’s migration occurred within a
broader context of US colonial policies. (Pérez, 2004) Settlement
in particular areas of Chicago was politically determined.
• However, this community resisted the “ghettoization” that the
dominant society envisioned, and instead formed a social and
cultural space for the communal healing and well-being of
community members.
5

6. Liberatory Public Health/
Social Work at Community Level
• Recognizes that Community is an Intellectual Space; Employs
alternative epistemologies to capture indigenous theories and
practices. (Kemmis, 2000; Patton,2002)
• Builds capacity and sustainability. Strengthens assets. (Gutiérrez,
2002)
• Understands historical and political forces that shape
community experience and memory, including role of academic &
“expert controlled" service organizations, vs indigenous
organizations; & academic vs. local knowledge. (Watts, 2003;
Prilleltensky, 2003; Foucault, 1984; Pease, 2002)
• Submits to community self-determination. (Prilleltensky, 2003)
• Fosters ongoing dialogue, reflection and action and critical
consciousness. (Labonte, 2002; Wallerstein, 1988)
• Affirms community culture and identity. (Hall, 2001)
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7. Lessons Learned
Ongoing critique of existing knowledge.
Dynamic boundaries are constantly negotiated.
Self reflection and critical analyses of relational aspects
of partnership and its effects on all members. (Assumes
participation in social life of the community.)
Document how process of inquiry (reciprocal learning)
changed participants as well as how the knowledge was
created.
Role and paradigm conflicts ensue from CBPR.

8. Insider-Outsider Issues
Social scientists have historically been viewed as
“outsiders” to communities.
Community members and social scientists are
co-researchers.
May embody elements of both “insiders” and “outsiders”
simultaneously, and with fluidity. (Heshusius, 1994)
“Researcher bias”, irrespective of “insiderness” or
“outsiderness”; may keep researchers from embracing the
potentially different visions of reality in the partnerships.

9. Community-Researcher
Partnership
Researcher-community dynamic is evolving.
“Outsider” and “insider” roles overlapping. (Thomas et al., 2000)
“Bridge builder” role. (Bloodworth et al., 2004)
Significant implications to community-researcher partnerships.
Motivation, intent and goals of partnership must align. (Ferman & Hill,
2004)
Social scientists may provide resources, yet community members are
the ones with the initiative for improvement of the capacity of their
community for action. (Hampshire et al., 2005)
Ethical implications necessitate that the university researcher’s/social
scientist’s role includes being facilitative, e.g. providing training, grant
writing support.

10. Power Dynamics
Professionalism does not equate with expertise.
“Career struggle” for academe-bound doctoral students. How
to reconcile, resist traditionalist system?
Longer time commitment required to do such work.
Engaging in cooperative research or interventions with
communities and gaining acceptance and respect for work.
Community development and capacity for action/change
means power rests within the particular community (Gilbert
& Masucci, 2004).
Ultimately accountable to community with whom you engage
in research (Ismail & Cazden, 2005).

11. Cultural Competency:
Problematic
Assumption that there exists a “catch all”, generic
prescription for process of cultural competence.
Each community is unique and complex in its “cultural
makeup”.
Not possible to be a “culturally competent” researcher.
Focus on trust building, listening, being honest about limits to
knowledge and resources, and truth of existing within
relationship as a “student” engaged in learning.
Propose a term that encompasses ideas of cultural
engagement, interest and active listening, e.g. “cultural
proficiency”. (Association of Schools of Public Health, 2005)

12. The PRCC is a 35 year-old community
services institution that was founded as a
response to the conditions that the Puerto
Rican and Latino communities confronted at
that time.
Three principles
have guided the
work of the Puerto
Rican Cultural
Center (PRCC):
• Self-Determination
• Self-Actualization
• Self-Sufficiency

13. Self-
determination
is the inalienable
right of a people or
nation to determine
their own destiny.
Within the context of
our work in
Humboldt Park, this
principle asserts the
right of the Puerto
Rican community to
be in control its
political, economic,
social, and cultural
future.

14. Self-
actualization is
our methodological
approach to
community building.
Our community must
overcome the
obstacles imposed by
a colonial, dependent
mentality by defining,
articulating and
executing a vision
that will lead us to a
better tomorrow.

15. Self-sufficiency
means the process of
critically assessing and
harnessing community
assets, which stand outside
of a traditional deficit-based
model. This assessment, of
our own resources and
strengths, implies a
vigorous and holistic
interrogation of the
community’s status.
Self-sufficiency does not
imply separatism; rather it
demands that
interdependency not be
defined by historically
imposed paradigms.

16. The PRCC is comprised of the following
programs and affiliates:
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos
High School, Vida/SIDA
AIDS Education and
Prevention Program,
Family Learning Center
(FLC), Andrés Figueroa
Cordero Library and
Community Informatics
Center, Consuelo Lee
Corretjer Day Care
Center, CO-OP
Humboldt Park and
annual projects like the
Three Kings Winter
Festival, Puerto Rican
Peoples’ Parade Fiesta
Boricua

17. An example of our work
is Vida/SIDA (Life/AIDS),
our HIV/STD peer
education and
prevention project.
Vida/SIDA builds
partnerships with
appropriate local
agencies and
community leadership
roundtables

18. Vida/SIDA makes use of
cultural reflection and
affirmation to change
behavior and
understanding.
It is made up of different
programs:
-MSM program
-Testing
-Capacity building
And does presentations
at: Peoples Parade
Fiesta Boricua
School Presentations
Bingo Halls (Churches)
Nightclubs
It also integrates
understanding of
gender and sexual
oppression in
Puerto Rican/Latino/
Communities of Color

19. In addition to the
previously mentioned
programs and projects of
Puerto Rican Cultural
Center, in December
2003, a group of young
activists launched a new
initiative to combat
gentrification and
displacement.
The Humboldt Park
Participatory Democracy
Project, as it was later
named, focused on
engaging the residents
living on and
surrounding Paseo
Boricua to participate in
the process of
“community-building”

20. • Weekly, anywhere
from 25-35
community workers
and youth conduct
one-on- one door
knocking sessions to
assess and address
community needs
• PD puts community
members in touch with
community resources
and city services;
project serves as
liaison

21. • Also the project
works closely with
local politicians to
conduct voter
registration
campaigns; hundreds
registered thus far
• To further stimulate
discussion and
dialogue, PD organized
“La Voz del Paseo
Boricua,” a bilingual
community newspaper
to keep community
informed of
developments.

22. “Participatory Democracy is founded on the belief
that people have the capacity and also the interest
to participate in giving form and content to their
future. It arms people with a collective voice much
stronger than a ballot, and the opportunity to be
agents of change.
Participatory democracy will confront the historically
oppressive conditions of our community; transforming
dependency, cynicism, hopelessness, individualism and
the threat of gentrification into self-sufficiency,
critical reflection, hope, collectivity and the
realization of community autonomy and self-
determination.”
–Humboldt Park Participatory Democracy Project, 2004

24. Contact info:
Michele A. Kelley:
makelley@uic.edu
Robyn Wheatly:
rwheat3@uic.edu
Michael Rodríguez Muñiz:
mrodriguez_lavoz@prcc-chgo.org
Alejandro Luis Molina:
alejandro@prcc-chgo.org
Dennis Poole:
dpoole@gwm.sc.edu