Space Scouts: a collaboration between university researchers and African American churches.
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.
Epstein
Joel
J
Misouri Institute of Mental Health, St. Louis, MO 63139, USA. joel.epstein@mimh.edu
Kadela Collins
Karen
K
Bailey-Burch
Brendolyn
B
Walker-Thoth
Daphne
D
Pancella
Thomas
T
D002648:Child; D003256:Community Participation; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008923:Missouri; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012106:Research; D029181:Spirituality; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*