Invited Symposium II: Science to Society: Transforming and Scaling up Community-Level Systems to Achieve Socially Signficant Outcomes for at-Risk Children and Families

To improve child health and wellbeing and reduce risk behaviors (e.g., drug abuse, violence, conduct problems), a system-wide prevention approach is needed that connects the scientific community and child-serving organizations, advocacy groups and influencers of public policy and media.  The goal is to enhance potential for collective scientific impact on real-world problems, such as prevailing negative influences on child development and family functioning, which are likely to respond favorably to evidence-based programs and policies.   Accordingly, this approach encourages wide-scale recognition, adoption and eventually institutionalization of the existing evidence that can be applied to minimize exposure to negative influences and redirect pathways of at-risk children toward successful outcomes.  Panelists will discuss the potential for the transfer of scientific information to public and private sectors to enact evidence-based programs and policies that exert a positive impact on the highest risk of all environments and individual level characteristics.  This session will also consider obstacles and solutions with respect to adoptability and implementation drivers of comprehensive evidence-based practices that take into account settings in which they are applied.  The need for the transactional involvement of scientists, policy-makers, community organizations, educators, practitioners, and funding agencies will be a focus of this discussion.  

 1)       Translational Prevention (Why – T1): Diana Fishbein (Senior Fellow at RTI) will convey findings relevant to understanding the generators of high risk behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, violence, conduct problems, etc.) and mechanisms in differential responses to interventions. Thus, the foundational science and its implications for evidence-based programs and policies will be presented.

2)       Need for an Evidence-Base (What – T2): Mark Greenberg (Professor, Penn State University) will discuss how better integration and use of the evidence from the basic sciences have potential to alter/improve program and policy effectiveness with a focus on school prorams, to benefit children, families and communities on local levels.

3)       Applied Implementation Science (How – T2): William Aldridge (National Implementation Research Network, FPG Child Development Institute, UNC Chapel Hill) will discuss the science, practice, and policy for ensuring full and effective use of evidence-based interventions at scale so that socially significant outcomes are realized.  Building system-wide, active implementation capacity to ensure selected evidence-based interventions are usable in local contexts, delivered with high fidelity, scaled-up using best practices, and sustained and improved over time will be discussed.

4)       Knowledge Transfer to Public and Private Sectors (Where – T3): Brian Bumbarger (Penn State University) will discuss ways in which a transfer of scientific knowledge about evidence-based programs and policies to the public and private sectors promises to benefit society.