Insights from the 37th EFPSA Congress

Carina Dantas, the coordinator of the SIRENE project at SHINE 2Europe, recently attended the 37th EFPSA Congress with the theme “Information is transformation: Unravelling Psychology’s role in policy-making.”

The congress took place from March 27th to April 2nd, 2023 in Povoa de Varzim in Portugal. It  aimed to provide psychology students with the knowledge and tools to create meaningful and significant changes in their communities through an empowered understanding of how psychological science can advise and contribute to local, national, and European public policies.

At the event, Carina participated as a speaker in the Roundtable discussion on “Addressing the rising challenges: methodologies of citizen involvement and engagement” on March 29th. She presented the example of SIRENE, along with the overall policy framework of Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments (SHAFE) and NET4Age-Friendly, to highlight the importance of citizen empowerment approaches and the need for multiple stakeholders’ involvement in promoting policy change, as the first step towards transformative processes.

"I was truly impressed with so many engaged psychology students and their interest in actually promoting world change, felt very inspired and it increased my hope for the future."
Carina Dantas
SIRENE Coordinator

The 37th EFPSA Congress emphasized the critical role of psychology in shaping public policies that can bring about significant changes in the community. It highlighted the importance of involving citizens and multiple stakeholders in the policymaking process to bring about transformative processes that can create a better future.

Psychology has a vital role to play in shaping public policies that can transform our communities, and we must recognize and leverage this power to bring about positive changes. Future activities will encmpass addressing more future researchers and professionals already in during their studies in to promote the need of multidisciplinarity and citizen engagement towards policy change.

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