ITR’s collaborative seed grant program supports small research projects that address important issues in children’s mental health that align with ITR’s mission, are identified by communities in Minnesota, and have a high likelihood of leading to external funding.
We are pleased to announce the four recipients of our seed grants for 2019:
Dr. Katie Lingras
Dr. Lingras’ project will extend her current partnership with the Ramsey County Head Start Programs to evaluate the short- and medium-term impacts of teacher training and consultation focused on early childhood mental health. The team is specifically interested in learning more about variables related to implementation that help to explain barriers and facilitators to embedding an evidence-based curriculum on social-emotional development and classroom management into a complex, real-world early childhood education system of many moving parts.
Dr. Christopher Mehus
In collaboration with Dr. Abi Gewirtz and Dr. Megan Patrick, Dr. Mehus will use data from the ADAPT trial (PI: Gewirtz) to investigate the links between parental alcohol use and multiple dimensions of parenting. To build on this further, Dr. Mehus will submit an NIH grant to examine the impact of parental alcohol use on intervention engagement and effectiveness.
Dr. Jeffrey Waid
Strengthening mental health service access and engagement among families at risk of child welfare intervention is a multi-phase study designed to fill a critical gap in the Minnesota child maltreatment prevention service continuum. ITR Seed Grant funds will provide support to Phase 2; a mixed-methods study designed to engage key stakeholders and identify key barriers and facilitators to mental health service access for Minnesota families.
Dr. Lindsey Weiler
This project, Evaluation of a Community Mentorship Program for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), will examine the feasibility and initial outcomes of the Autism Mentorship Program, a near-peer mentoring program that pairs young adults and adolescents with ASD in one-to-one mentoring relationships. This program is an important example of a community-university partnership that targets the quality of life, socio-emotional health, self-esteem, and social connectedness of those with ASD.
