In the fall of 2022, employees of the Rites of Passage Institute (ROPI) contacted Dr. George and a colleague from USF (Kelly McDermontt, current board member of IIHR) based on a webinar given to community members of the Youth Passageways network. The purpose of this webinar was to highlight the current research projects being conducted by Drs. George and McDermott, as well as to promote other community partnerships to engage in evidence-based program evaluation and research based projects.
ROPI is a well-funded community partner working to strengthen their sense of self, learn critical life skills, discover their potential, and create a health vision for the future through camps, school-based programs and professional training. The founder, Arne Rubenstein, and his team have been collecting data for over 15 years about their programs. However, when Drs. George and McDermott agreed to partner with them, and discovered that the data they were collecting did not methodologically match their desired outcomes. Therefore, with this partnership we have increased the internal capacity for the individual programs run by ROPI by creating research resources, providing consultation for protocol development, offering staff training, and guidance on data collection and analytic methodologies. Eventually, we intend to provide meaningful data to ROPI that could be used for future funding opportunities and policy changes. Partnerships within IIHR like these illustrate the necessity for academic expertise applied to community-based interests can be beneficial to both parties – the faculty researchers and the community organizations.
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