Successful dissemination and translation of alcohol prevention research into community-based practice is an essential component of the ?Environmental Approaches to Prevention? Research Center Grant. Over the past five years, Center Grant staff took steps to achieve this overarching goal through two major activities: (1) they met with county and community practitioners involved in the 24-city randomized trial (Component #2: ?Environmental Prevention Strategies to Reduce Community Alcohol Problems?) to learn more about what types of environmental alcohol prevention strategies the practitioners were working on, and to determine what additional information and skills they needed to implement evidence-based interventions (e.g., alcohol policy enforcement and related visibility activities); and (2) they used that information to develop dissemination methods and products. These included: (a) documents and tools to guide practitioners in selecting the evidence-based intervention strategies best suited to their needs; (b) a Resource Link website hosted by PRC that allows anyone to access these tools and documents; and (c) a newsletter to capture and publicize successful intervention activities in the intervention communities and elsewhere. For the renewal of Component #2: ?Information and Dissemination in Support of Community Interventions,? we will build on our experiences from the past five years to enhance our dissemination capabilities and reach a broader audience of community prevention practitioners, policymakers, and organizations/agencies across the U.S. We will update the Resource Link website with interactive features (including posting webinars and providing an opportunity for users to contact the research staff directly), and use digital technology to optimize the number of times that Resource Link is returned in Internet searches. We will use digital social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) to broadcast information about Resource Link, including publicizing webinars and new resources to general and target audiences. At the same time, we will work closely with other PRC scientists to identify and develop dissemination products related to new research results, including findings from the proposed Center Grant components. We will work with other organizations that can act as ?information brokers? to effectively disseminate research findings from the Center Grant and other PRC projects. Finally, we will obtain feedback from a panel of experts who review the new products and interactive tools on Resource Link and related webinars. In summary, the specific aims for the Information and Dissemination Component are to: (1) disseminate scientific materials based on key research findings from past and on-going PRC projects to general audiences and to an expanded list of targeted audiences (e.g., increasing the Resource Link website?s interactivity by conducting and adding digitally-recorded webinars); (2) provide technical assistance to alcohol prevention practitioners, policy-makers and organizations/agencies working to reduce harms associated with alcohol misuse (e.g., direct communication with PRC research staff via telephone or Skype); and (3) assess the extent to which Aims 1 and 2 are accomplished by monitoring and documenting relevant indicators (i.e., results of search engine optimization efforts, website visits, website information requests, technical assistance requests and type of contact, participation in webinars, and media releases).
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