Call for Nominations - Deadline August 1, 2008

The American Psychological Association (APA) is seeking nominations for the 2009 International Humanitarian Award.

This APA award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian service and activism by a psychologist or a team of psychologists, including professional and/or volunteer work conducted primarily in the field with under-served populations.

"Extraordinary humanitarian services" are defined as professional activities initiated by psychologists, working alone or in association with others, to help alleviate severe stress and restore psychological well-being to a group of people in a variety of difficult circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

• survivors and/or victims' families following a significant event such as a natural or person-induced disaster, a national or international incident, a civil war, or a forced migration
• a community of any size in which long-term political, economic, social and/or other circumstances have caused severe stress and psychological problems for a substantial portion of that community.

Nominees can be of any country and need not be members or affiliate members of APA. Recipients are psychologists or teams of psychologists working under the aegis of local, national, and international organizations that provide psycho-social and humanitarian services.

Nominations should provide ample and clear documentation to substantiate extraordinary service that has improved the lives and contributed to the well being of people in either large or small geographic areas anywhere in the world.

Documentation should include, but is not limited to, descriptions of the following:

1. the difficult conditions constituting severe threats to the security, stability, welfare or development of communities
2. specific actions, including personal risk, taken to improve conditions
3. demonstrated skills, knowledge, dedication, and persistence brought to bear on work within specific communities
4. the social and political activism displayed in rebuilding or transforming communities, and/or fostering the empowerment of community members to act on their own behalf.

Nominations will be screened by the APA Committee on International Relations in Psychology, which will make recommendations to the APA Board of Directors for their designation of the awardee.

Applications must include:

• a cover letter of nomination
• a 500-word narrative describing the nominee's extraordinary humanitarian services and activism, including specification of the time frames when this occurred
• a current curriculum vitae
• three letters of recommendation concerning the nominee's humanitarian service
• any other supporting documents deemed essential to a full presentation of the applicant's work and contributions.

Nominations and supporting materials may be sent in electronic or paper format.

For electronic submissions, please send supporting documents as email attachments in MS Word or pdf format. Each file must be labeled with the nominee's name and document type (e.g., Smith-vita). Please put "Humanitarian Award" in the email subject line. Send submission to Sally Leverty.

For paper submissions send all documents in one package to Sally Leverty, Humanitarian Award Nominations, APA Office of International Affairs, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC, 20002-4242, USA.

August 1, 2008 is the deadline for submissions