The Cultural Providers Network, a partnership among University of Minnesota faculty/staff and providers of children's mental health services in culturally diverse communities, aims to 1) increase community understanding of evidence-based practice (EBP) in children's MH; 2) increase the scientific community's understanding of community-defined evidence, 3) adopting EBP within, or adapting EBP for, culturally diverse communities; 4) expanding the evidence base to include more community-based, culturally relevant strategies; and 5) creating a mechanism for researchers and providers of services to culturally diverse communities to identify and respond to the practice and research needs of diverse communities. Specifically, we aim to 1) develop measurable strategies to create an effective collaborative process, 2) create and evaluate opportunities for the scientific community and community providers to increase mutual understanding of each other's definitions of effectiveness, standards of evidence, criteria for cultural appropriateness, and ways of knowing, 3) identify culturally-specific mental health practices and design a culturally relevant process to establish their effectiveness, 4) identify established EBP that could be adopted without modification or adapted for culturally diverse communities and design a culturally relevant research strategy to document effectiveness, and 5) develop a culturally appropriate self- assessment strategy to identify critical mechanisms of success underlying both the attainment of a healthy collaboration (aim 1) and the achievement of desired outcomes (aims 2-4). In order to achieve aims 1 and 2 and to form a basis for the work of aims 3 through 5, the Cultural Providers Network will engage in """"""""authentic dialogues,"""""""" a facilitated process aimed at exploring deeply the views of participants about critical issues in the context of culture, race and ethnicity. Out of increased understanding of what is important to the scientific community and what is important to the community providers, and how these priorities are embedded in culture, negotiations will be undertaken to develop culturally relevant evaluation plans to measure effectiveness of selected community-based, culturally relevant strategies and selected EBP adapted for culturally diverse communities. The Cultural Providers Network will, in collaboration with an evaluation consultant experienced in working in culturally diverse communities, design and carryout a self-assessment to identify mechanisms of successful collaboration and attainment of aims. ? ? ?
