Kentucky TRIALS Research Center

This cooperative agreement Center application, KY-TRIALS research center, is submitted by the University of Kentucky (UK) in cooperation with the Department of Juvenile Justice, substance abuse community service providers, and HIV service providers to respond to RFA-DA-13-009, “Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System: TRIALS”. This project focuses on filling a need for implementation studies to enhance continuity of care for juvenile justice involved youth. Kentucky provides an ideal setting to study juvenile justice implementation of evidence-based practices because of a long standing Juvenile Justice and UK relationship. KY-TRIALS is well-positioned to implement evidence-based practices. The Overall Aim of the KY-TRIALS Center is to collaborate in developing and testing implementation strategies and associated measures to improve the continuum of substance abuse prevention and treatment services delivered to youth under juvenile justice supervision. The KY-TRIALS approach incorporates theoretical frameworks of implementation science (Proctor et. al., 2009; Aarons, et. al., 2011) and organizational change to examine how evidence-based practices (see APA, 2006) are implemented into practice in organizational settings. Our conceptual approach draws upon our experience in organizational implementation and cooperative studies to carry out the KY-TRIALS research center vision and research. This application presents 4 proven partner-rich Center Committees to: 1) Plan, 2) Implement, 3) Collect and Analyze Data, and 4) Develop Publications in concert with our KY-TRIALS Center Steering Committee, the national TRIALS Steering Committee, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Letters of commitment include our states' Juvenile Justice Commissioner; Acting Director, Division of Behavioral Health; Executive Director, Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy; juvenile justice officials; and service providers which support our innovative vision.