Cultural Adaptation of a Substance Abuse Prevention Program as a Catalyst for Community Change

The aim of the current paper is to discuss the use of Outcome Mapping as a tool for evaluating community and stakeholder changes that occurred when a prevention program was culturally adapted and delivered through a community-university partnership. To the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the first account of using Outcome Mapping as an evaluation tool in a Canadian Indigenous context. Changes in the behavior, actions, activities, and relationships of five boundary partners were retrospectively documented using the tool. Data demonstrated positive impact on Elders and students; growing community investment in and support for the Maskwacis Life Skills Training program’s cultural components; progressive increases in community ownership of the program; and growth in the community-university partnership. Overall, Outcome Mapping provided a systematic method for understanding peripheral changes that are often overlooked in conventional research and evaluation, but that nonetheless indicate progress toward community changes and long-term impact

A Community-University Approach to Substance Abuse Prevention

In response to high rates of substance abuse in their communities, members of the Maskwacis four Nations invited university researchers to partner in culturally adapting, implementing, and evaluating an evidence-based substance abuse and violence prevention program, the Life Skills Training program (Botvin & Griffin, 2014). This project used a community-based participatory research (Israel, Schulz, Parker, & Becker, 1998; Minkler & Wallerstein, 2003) approach, and was carried out by university and First Nation community partners. To evaluate the impact of the adapted program, students completed pre and post questionnaires, and community members participated in focus groups. The adapted Maskwacis Life Skills Training program was delivered in schools for three years. Students’ knowledge increased significantly during program delivery, and strong support was documented from community members. This project demonstrates the impact that can be facilitated by culturally adapting and delivering a prevention program, and by forming a community-university partnership