Impact Challenges in Community Science‐with‐Practice: Lessons from PROSPER on Transformative Practitioner‐Scientist Partnerships and Prevention Infrastructure Development
- 11 January 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in American Journal of Community Psychology
- Vol. 48 (1-2), 106-119
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9417-7
Abstract
At present, evidence-based programs (EBPs) to reduce youth violence are failing to translate into widespread community practice, despite their potential for impact on this pervasive public health problem. In this paper we address two types of challenges in the achievement of such impact, drawing upon lessons from the implementation of a partnership model called PROSPER. First, we address five key challenges in the achievement of community-level impact through effective community planning and action: readiness and mobilization of community teams; maintaining EBP implementation quality; sustaining community teams and EBPs; demonstrating community-level impact; and continuous, proactive technical assistance. Second, we consider grand challenges in the large-scale translation of EBPs: (1) building, linking and expanding existing infrastructures to support effective EBP delivery systems, and (2) organizing networks of practitioner-scientist partnerships—networks designed to integrate diffusion of EBPs with research that examines effective strategies to do so. The PROSPER partnership model is an evidence-based delivery system for community-based prevention and has evolved through two decades of NIH-funded research, assisted by land grant universities’ Cooperative Extension Systems. Findings and lessons of relevance to each of the challenges are summarized. In this context, we outline how practitioner-scientist partnerships can serve to transform EBP delivery systems, particularly in conjunction with supportive federal policy.Keywords
This publication has 40 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Effect of the PROSPER Partnership Model on Cultivating Local Stakeholder Knowledge of Evidence-Based Programs: A Five-Year Longitudinal Study of 28 CommunitiesPrevention Science, 2011
- Fast Track intervention effects on youth arrests and delinquencyJournal of Experimental Criminology, 2010
- Results of a Type 2 Translational Research Trial to Prevent Adolescent Drug Use and DelinquencyArchives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 2009
- Testing Communities That Care: The Rationale, Design and Behavioral Baseline Equivalence of the Community Youth Development StudyPrevention Science, 2008
- Implementation Matters: A Review of Research on the Influence of Implementation on Program Outcomes and the Factors Affecting ImplementationAmerican Journal of Community Psychology, 2008
- The Meaning of Translational Research and Why It MattersJAMA, 2008
- Community and Team Member Factors that Influence the Early Phase Functioning of Community Prevention Teams: The PROSPER ProjectJournal of Prevention, 2007
- Prosper study of evidence‐based intervention implementation quality by community–university partnershipsJournal of Community Psychology, 2007
- Community and Team Member Factors that Influence the Operations Phase of Local Prevention Teams: The PROSPER ProjectPrevention Science, 2007
- Practice-Based Research—“Blue Highways” on the NIH RoadmapJAMA, 2007