Utah’s Association of Women in Psychology (UT AWP) is community.

Individual: My name is Amanda. I am a brown, Latina/Boriqua-identified, mixed heritage, mixed identity, cis-gender female.  I am currently a Certified Social Worker and an “IMP” (Implementation Team Member) for UT AWP.  I came across AWP in a time when I was feeling a void in my life, a void that was previously filled by strong people who held thoughts of social justice in their daily strides.  When I met UT AWP I will admit that I felt intimidated by the minds in the room, but I also felt immediately at home.  The niche that I was looking for, the void that I was feeling was suddenly filled.  Within this niche, I feel as though I can reach out whenever I need to in either a professional or personal capacity, to discuss the more raw parts of justice in our Utah community; it can at times, be a challenge.  I sincerely hope that this short statement might encourage you all to consider joining our collective.  Expanding the size of this niche will only encourage its potential to create change.

Micro: As a psychologist, a social worker, a counselor, a coach, a teacher, an advocate, an activist, or an interested community person, you are welcome to participate in the many activities that UT AWP has to offer.  There are a number of ways to get involved: you can attend a presentation or a conference, suggest a future presentation, conference topic or social, or represent Utah by attending our national conference!

Mezzo: UT AWP and its over 400 community connections often utilizes local resources to make presentations, conferences, and socials come to life.  We have many agencies to thank for this continued support – too many to mention – however, we do request that you all acknowledge yourselves if you are reading this.  Please give yourself a shout out if you are a member of a community agency that has recently supported UT AWP via our Facebook Page.  Link here: https://www.facebook.com/AWP-Utah-129070517177403/

Macro: UT AWP was created to support macro-level feminist, social justice work.  At national conference last year, Dr. Angela Davis said, “often what is the most marginal issue is actually the most central issue.”  Although AWP members across generations may have been lived differing experiences or meanings of feminism and/or social justice, this quote seemed to stick with all of us in some way.  It has aligned us in our work nationally and reminded us to find and focus on the “most central issue.”

We hope that you will join the Utah AWP collective at AWP’s national conference this year in Pittsburgh, PA! http://www.awpsych.org/conference/

As part of the UT AWP Membership Drive, we hope that you all will join our community. Become a member or make a donation by visiting our event page at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/awp-scholarship-drive-tickets-19676428728.