Community Wellbeing: What is it and how can research help produce more of it?

Researchers can make a difference in improving wellbeing through being 'committed, fair witnesses'. Committed to research that might improve the well being of families and communities. Fair in the sense of deploying the strongest research designs, methods, questions, and analyses we cam. Witness through ethnography, fieldwork, contextual and cultural understanding and direct, personal connection to the experiences of the participants in our research, as well as through distal, quantitative measures. Examples will include reducing poverty and improving children' wellbeing among working poor; improving family accommodation to children with autism in India; understanding friendships and self-identity among youth with disabilities; and understanding the complexity of families and documentation status among immigrants in California. About the Lecturer: Tom S Weisner, PhD is Research Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Departments of Psychiatry (Semel Institute, Center for Culture & Health) and Anthropology at UCLA