Purpose of review To describe community engaged research (CEnR) and how it may improve the quality of a research study while addressing ethical concerns that communities may have with mental health and substance abuse research. This article includes a review of the literature as well as recommendations from an expert panel convened with funding from the US National Institute of Mental Health. Recent findings CEnR represents a broad spectrum of practices including representation on institutional ethics committees, attitude research with individuals from the study population, engaging community advisory boards, forming research partnerships with community organizations, and including community members as co-investigators. Summary CEnR poses some challenges; for example, it requires funding and training for researchers and community members. However, it offers many benefits to researchers and communities and some form of CEnR is appropriate and feasible in nearly every study involving human participants.

Space Scouts, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and produced by the Missouri Institute of Mental Health (MIMH), is a three-episode series of media tools designed to teach fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children from African American churches about the science of drug addiction. This article examines the effectiveness of the principles of practice for community-based participatory research used to create Space Scouts. Academic researchers at MIMH collaborated with an inter-faith agency-Committed Caring Faith Communities (CCFC)-and solicited feedback from members of the target audience, their pastors, and other church staff, substance abuse researchers, and curriculum development specialists in order to ensure that the final program would meet the needs of all involved parties.