DISSEMINATION AND OUTREACH CORE: Penn State University's Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (TCCMS)

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DISSEMINATION AND OUTREACH CORE: PROJECT ABSTRACT To reduce the occurrence of child maltreatment (CM) and improve the quality and effectiveness of supports provided to victims, it is critical to enhance the capacity of child protective services agencies to use research evidence to enhance the identification and use of practices and policies that promote effective prevention, detection or response to CM and its effects. Yet, these agencies face significant time, resource, and expertise constraints in using their own data to understand and troubleshoot fundamental and longstanding problems, such as the high and racially-disparate rate of fatalities for children with prior agency contact. The TCCMS DOC seeks to use the substantive and methodological expertise of the TCCMS investigators and affiliates to directly aid agencies in addressing their highest-priority concerns. In Aim 1, the DOC will engage and leverage community expertise to define priority areas for scientific innovation in the prevention, detection, and response to CM by developing a Community-Based Research Network (CBRN) tasked with defining and prioritizing systemic problems that limit the capacity of child protection agencies to effectively identify, protect, and support victims of CM. The CBRN is comprised of agency leadership at the state and local levels as well as leadership in private and nonprofit child-serving agencies that hold significant influence over state and local policies and practices. In Aim 2, the DOC will design and implement collaborative research studies based on identified priorities of the CBRN, focusing on areas in which our community partners commit to use of research to implement policy or practice reforms. Under Aim 2, we will also help other TCCMS investigators partner with the CBRN or other community leaders in the development of large-scale externally-funded projects that respond to important CM policy or practice concerns. Lastly, under Aim 3, the DOC will translate practice- responsive research findings for direct application in policy and practice and disseminate to stakeholders. In collaboration with the TCCMS Resource and Admin Cores, we will translate research for non-academic audiences – the public, practitioners, and policymakers – in the form of practice and policy briefs, webinars, and trainings. Lastly, the DOC will enhance the education of future scholars and professionals who will use or generate research evidence through outreach and engagement of undergraduate, graduate, and post- graduate students training for work in child-serving professions or for applied research careers to inform the work of professionals in CM and related fields.