CORE: Compassion Oriented Reflection and Engagement to Guide Academic-Community Partnership

Abstract

Estimates in dissemination, implementation, and services (DIS) research continue to present a 17-year lag for implementation of only 14% of evidence-based clinical services and technologies in practice (Chambers, 2018)-especially troubling for communities characterized by disproportionately high rates of poverty, crime and mental health need (Yoshikawa, Aber, & Beardslee, 2012). Academic-community partnerships offer pathways by which to speed the transport of evidence-based innovations; however, a range of challenges can disrupt implementation and adoption (Damschroder et al., 2009). This manuscript presents Compassion-Oriented Reflection and Engagement (CORE), a framework to inform academic collaborators' perspectives and practices towards building flexible, responsive partnerships with youth-serving community-based organizations. core: compassion oriented reflection and engagement to guide academic-community partnership Recent decades have seen a rapid expansion in dissemination, implementation, and services (DIS) efforts in healthcare; however, current literature continues to estimate a 17-year lag for implementation, and only 14 percent overall adoption of evidence-based clinical tools and technologies in practice (see Chambers, 2018 for a review). While investigators know less about rates of penetration for science specific to families impacted by resource scarcity, a robust body of work documents barriers to crucial evidence-based practices (EBP) in communities characterized by high rates of poverty (Yoshikawa et al., 2012). Youth in economically disadvantaged urban city centers continue to attend underfunded, understaffed schools (Cappella et al., 2008), face higher rates of domestic and community violence exposure (Foster & Brooks-Gunn, 2009), and contend with geographic barriers (Baker et al., 2006) that altogether interfere with meeting basic physical, educational, and mental health needs. To address this gap, DIS scientists have increasingly leveraged a wide variety of academic-community partnerships (ACP) to transport EBPs to socioeconomically vulnerable communities (e.g., Fagan et al., 2012). Systematic cultivation of ACPs has yielded a robust body of work describing conceptual models to maximize the success of EBP implementation in community-based organizations (CBOs) (see Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, Damschroder et al., 2009), and investigators have presented frontline challenges and examples of problem solving, "lessons learned," and recommendations for the procedures of ACP (