The Social Work Research Development Program for Underserved Populations

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The Social Work Research Development Program for Underserved Populations is a five-year project through which six schools of social work have been funded to study ethnicity and culture as they influence prevention and treatment of substance abuse, to undertake pilot studies which are linked by design to these dimensions, and to make applications for studies to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and other appropriate federal funding agencies. Our emphasis is on African and Hispanic Americans. The University of Texas at Austin (UT/Austin) was the first public university funded under this program.

SUMMARY

The Substance Abuse Research Development Program is the first program at a public university in the country to be funded as part of a NIDA initiative to stimulate the development of federally funded Social Work research on substance abuse. The Research Program focuses specifically upon substance abuse among underserved populations (particularly African-Americans and Mexican-Americans) and emphasizes factors at the individual, family, organizational, societal, and cultural level that influence substance abuse and substance abuse treatment.

The 5-year (2001-2006) $2 million Research Development Program involves both research and training activities to develop substance abuse research among faculty and students in the School of Social Work and related disciplines. The Research Development Program, housed in the Center for Social Work Research, includes:

Funding of pilot studies, with mentoring by senior researchers and consultants to help faculty with the goal of developing larger-scale federally funded projects.
Support of faculty who are ready to make an application to NIDA or other appropriate funding agency. This activity includes mentoring by senior researchers and consultants. It also includes helping faculty to prepare the application for approval by the University of Texas Office of Sponsored Projects, as well as compiling the information to meet the federal application specifications.
An ongoing seminar/workshop series also provides state of the art information regarding research methods, grant writing, and findings of current research in the field of substance abuse and under-served groups. Many times featured speakers will have the same research interests as UT/Austin faculty writing grant applications.
Two $3,000 dissertation stipends are awarded yearly to doctoral students whose concept papers meet specific criteria. Papers are reviewed by School of Social Work faculty and other University Schools such as Nursing.

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Addiction Research Institute

Center for Social Work Research
School of Social Work
University of Texas at Austin
1717 West 6th Street, Suite 335
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 232-0616
FAX: (512) 232-0617