Substance Abuse and Prevention Work

Project LEAD (Laws to Eliminate Abuse and Diversion)

Tags HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Prevention

This three-state collaborative project investigates the influence of state laws in Connecticut, Kentucky, and Wisconsin, on the transition from prescription opioids to injecting non-prescription opioids and/or heroin injection.

Enhancing Community Capacity for Preventing Prescription Drug Misuse

Tags Community Alliances, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

ICR is working with the West Hartford Substance Abuse Prevention Commission (WHSAPC) and community partners to develop a community needs assessment and strategic plan to reduce prescription drug misuse among West Hartford youth and young adults, with particular attention to minority, high-risk youth.

Coalition Building and Youth Substance Abuse Prevention in West Hartford, CT

Tags Mental Health, Participatory Action Research, Science and Art, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

ICR’s prevention program in West Hartford is a collaboration between the West Hartford Substance Abuse Prevention Commission, Institute for Community Research, West Hartford high school students and school administration, and community members.

Youth Action Research for Prevention

Tags Participatory Action Research, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This three-year project built upon 12 years of prior intervention projects that conducted Participatory Action Research for social change and risk prevention, with both youth and adults. The project followed three previously CSAP funded YPAR interventions for substance use prevention, Teen Action Research for Prevention (TARP), Urban women against substance abuse (UWASA), a mother-daughter program and Desarollando el poder dentro de ti, a prevention program to strengthen Puerto Rican families in the context of community substance abuse activities. Youth Action Research for Prevention offered ICR the opportunity to conduct a much needed rigorous evaluation of the process and outcomes of a YPAR program for prevention filling a gap in the YPAR literature.

Youth Rxeaction

Tags: Participatory Action Research, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This YARI project involved West Hartford teens in investigations of prescription drug misuse in their town.

Supplement to Pathways to High-Risk Drug Abuse Among Urban Youth: Club Drugs

Tags: Intervention Research, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This supplement grant to the study, “Pathways to High-Risk Drug Abuse Among Urban Youth” sought to understand and document the social and cultural contexts of “club” or “designer” drug use, and sex risks associated with the influx of these new drugs among urban youth in Hartford, CT.

RDS Network and Peer Recruitment Dynamics

Tags Specialized Methods, Substance Abuse and Prevention

Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) has gained its popularity internationally for its cost effectiveness in reaching hidden populations and claimed ability to make unbiased population estimates.

Diffusing Youth-Based Participatory Action Research for Prevention Model

Tags Participatory Action Research, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

The Diffusing Youth-Based Participatory Action Research for Prevention project piloted and created an abbreviated curriculum and implementation manual designed for youth-serving organizations. This project explored how ICR’s theory-driven substance abuse prevention model, which uses a participatory action research (PAR) training process as the basis for youth risk-prevention and education through skill-building, empowerment and problem-solving, can be shortened and adapted for use by youth workers in different settings and with different urban populations.

Youth Participatory Action Research to Reduce Teen Substance Abuse in Meriden

Tags Community Alliances, Participatory Action Research, Science and Art, Specialized Methods, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This youth participatory action research (YPAR) program is a year round youth employment opportunity for economically disadvantaged youth in Meriden, Connecticut, funded by the Workforce Alliance, Inc.

Drug Use, Housing Access, Stability and HIV Risk Among Low-Income Urban Residents

Tags Health Disparities, HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Prevention

This 4-year study explored the relationship between structural factors of housing (access to housing subsidies and programs, status and stability) and HIV risk among low-income drug users compared to non-drug users.

Smokeless Tobacco Project

Tags Health Disparities, International, Substance Abuse and Prevention

This 3-year study of a “slum” community in Mumbai identified outlets and available forms of smokeless tobacco and examined women’s smokeless tobacco practices in relation to their reproductive health.

Translation of the Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP) for Drug Treatment Clinic Implementation

Tags Community Alliances, HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Specialized Methods, Substance Abuse and Prevention

The goal of this 3-year study was to translate the Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP) project for implementation in outpatient drug treatment clinics and to pilot test the modified intervention in two methadone clinics.

Alcohol, Sexual Risk and HIV Prevention in Mumbai, India

Tags HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, International, Substance Abuse and Prevention

This three-year study investigated how alcohol may contribute to risky sexual activities that lead to HIV transmission among married and unmarried men and their sexual partners in three low income slums in the Mumbai metropolitan area.

Xperience Project

Tags Health Disparities, Science and Art, Specialized Methods, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This unique study piloted a performance-based intervention in partnership with Hartford youth, who developed drug-prevention messages to incorporate into performances of local artists at live shows, then disseminated them via a CD and other media.

MDMA Project

Tags HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

The purpose of this study was to discover whether and in what ways MDMA contributes to sexual behavior and decision making, and when its use is associated with lack of protection.

Urban Lifestyles: Club Drugs, Resource Inequities and Health Risks in Urban Youth

Tags HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This cutting-edge study examined the mechanisms through which potentially dangerous new club, dance-related and prescription drugs (often referred to as “designer drugs”) were diffusing into the urban environment in Hartford.

Rollin’ and Dustin’: Pathways to Urban Life Styles

Tags HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This traveling exhibit, a collaboration of ICR and the Hartford Animation Institute, was designed to present almost 10 years of research findings on the lifestyles and drug use of young people in Hartford, CT. 

Female Condom Study

Tags Health Disparities, HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Prevention

This four-year study explored factors that enhance or impede initial and long-term use of female condoms to prevent HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections.

Pathways to High-Risk Drug Abuse Among Urban Youth

Tags HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This 4-year study identified critical factors responsible for the transition from “soft” or “gateway” drug use to “hard” drug use, including injection drug use, among multiethnic inner city young adults in Hartford, CT.

Project Protect

Tags Health Disparities, HIV AIDS Risk and Prevention, Substance Abuse and Prevention

This three-year study conducted in Hartford, CT explored readiness for use of vaginal microbicides as HIV prevention among women involved in high-risk activities, such as drug use and risky sex.

NIDA New Haven

Tags Substance Abuse and Prevention, Youth

This intervention study is developing, conducting and evaluating a new approach to drug and sex-risk prevention in urban middle schools.