Resumo

SANABRIA,, JHON J  e  BALCAZAR, FABRICIO. MEANINGS OF THE EMPOWERMENT PROCESS: A STUDY WITH A SELF-HELPING ORGANIZATION FOR MINORITIES WITH DISCAPACITIES. Act.Colom.Psicol. [online]. 2005, vol.8, n.2, pp.53-68. ISSN 0123-9155.

Empowerment is a complex construc with various meanings, steps and actions. Duns, Trivette and LaPointe (1992) propose a theoretical framework integrating three empowerment components: ideology, process and results. They also propose that each one has at least two meanings: As an ideology the empowerment includes philosophy and paradigm whose process involves faciliting activities and alliances. As a process it includeschanges in power perception and in performance. The article examines the conceptual model usefulness for development, implementation and assessing of empowerment interventions. For this, a case study is presented describing a empowerment intervention with a service organization for ethnic minorities with discapacities. The information was obtained through activities and semi-strucutred interview scoring. Results indicate that the empowerment concept including multiple meanings is useful for analyzing empowerment interventions. Discussion explores the theoretical implications for developing alliances among universities and communities to promote empowerment.

Palavras-chave : empowerment meanings; case study.

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