The implementation of a culturally grounded, school‐based, drug prevention curriculum in rural Hawai‘i

Abstract

This article describes the process of infusing implementation strategies in the development of a school-based drug prevention curriculum for rural Native Hawaiian youth. The curriculum (Ho'ouna Pono) is a video-enhanced, teacher-implemented curriculum developed using a culturally grounded and community-based participatory research approach. Throughout the development of the curriculum, strategies reflective of the domains of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) were integrated into the teacher training manual, to promote the implementation, adoption, and sustainability of the curriculum in rural Hawai'i. These strategies were validated through qualitative data across two interrelated studies with community stakeholders in rural Hawai'i. Implications for prevention, community, and educational practices are described in this article.

Applications of translation and implementation science to community psychology: An introduction to a special issue

“…Pollastri et al (2020) illustrate this process through the lens of using an implementation framework which includes strategies to involve stakeholders, including asking staff to complete a survey or participate in a focus group and identification of champions to support implementation efforts. Similarly, Okamoto et al (2020) rely on implementation strategies from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (Damschroder et al, 2009) and use a community‐based participatory research approach to develop a school‐based drug prevention program in rural Hawaii for Native Hawaiian youth. Specifically, they relied on input from educational stakeholders (teachers, principals, superintendent, and school counselors) to validate the curriculum and prepare for implementation.…”

“…One important step in tailoring implementation strategies for a specific community is to run proposed strategies through the community for feedback and adaptations. Okamoto et al (2020) used such processes in their tailoring for implementation of their school‐based curriculum for Native Hawaiians. Workshops can also specifically focus on tailoring those implementation strategies, as was completed for Haroz et al (2020) with Native American communities.…”

“…This special issue includes 12 exciting articles that leverage implementation science in community‐focused and relevant ways by offering several opportunities to take an up‐close look at how implementation frameworks and strategies are leveraged in the development (Okamoto et al, 2020), and implementation (Haroz et al, 2020; Pollastri, Wang, Youn, Ablon, & Marques, 2020) of community programming. These efforts are largely done in close collaboration with community partners to ensure buy‐in and sustainment of the implementation efforts.…”

Evaluation of a school-based participatory intervention to improve school environments using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research

“…Participatory approaches to research such as community-based participatory research (CBPR) and participatory action research (PAR) have proven effective in guiding public health intervention design in various contexts, particularly for interventions addressing health inequities [ 1 , 2 ]. However, the utilization of theoretical frameworks to guide the development [ 3 ] or the systematic project implementation assessments of participatory interventions [ 4 – 7 ] is in its infancy. Participatory interventions are characterized by distinct practices that may influence implementation including shared decision-making processes, the iterative nature of intervention development and implementation, and an explicit commitment to accommodating local stakeholder perspectives and priorities [ 8 ].…”

“…While the CFIR doesn’t explicitly account for how to incorporate stakeholder perspectives and goals in a participatory implementation process [ 5 ], collaboration with stakeholders, defined as individuals within and/or external to the organization who are involved with implementation, can inform implementation plans, broadly increasing engagement and strengthening the intervention’s execution along with its relevance and acceptability for participants [ 19 ]. Additionally, participatory interventions’ inherent adaptability may augment their compatibility and implementation across a range of institutions [ 3 , 20 ]. Given the need for ongoing partnerships between institutional leaders and other stakeholders within participatory interventions and the potential for challenges in maintaining these partnerships [ 21 ], leadership engagement is also likely to be influential.…”