The Illinois-Substance Use and Mental Health Mentored Experience and Research (I-SUMMER) program

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Community-Academic Scholars Illinois-Substance Use and Mental Health Mentored Experience and Research (I-SUMMER) program supports undergraduate students in addressing substance use disorders and mental health comorbidity through intensive community-engaged summer research experiences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Illinois). This program supports undergraduates who want to make a difference in their local community while developing key research skills. The overall goal of the program is to foster collaborations and drive new initiatives that shape the direction of health research in the state of Illinois, particularly in areas seen as critical to our community, such as the negative health outcomes related to substance use. The participants in this program will be drivers of change as we strive toward community collaboration as the foundation for improving public health. The Community-Academic Scholars I-SUMMER Program is focused on three pillars: research, community engagement, and collaboration. Our goals are to: 1) support and encourage all students to obtain community- driven research experience in the health sciences; 2) motivate learning to address the societal challenge of substance use and mental health disorders; 3) integrate research early in the college experience to encourage critical thinking and analytical skills; and 4) provide hands-on real-world experience in the community that highlights the importance of addressing substance use/misuse. The program pairs undergraduate researchers with an academic- and community-mentor to facilitate meaningful research deemed beneficial to the University of Illinois’ academic, local, and regional communities. Through this 10-week engaged research experience, scholars will participate in hands-on research in the community while working as part of an established community-academic research team. In addition to conducting research, scholars will meet as a cohort for weekly “coffee hours” to learn about a variety of topics including data privacy, leveraging research to create public policy, effective research dissemination, planning for a career in research, and building mutually beneficial and ongoing community-academic research partnerships. This research experience culminates in a poster session where the participants present their findings to campus and community leaders. These scholars will have the opportunity to improve the health and wellbeing of others, while participating in a supportive community of other scholars and receive mentoring from both their academic and community supervisors. By increasing the number of students participating in community-engaged research at Illinois, the Illinois- Substance Use and Mental Health Mentored Experience and Research (I-SUMMER) Program will build long- term partnerships within the local community that endure long after the individual scholars have graduated.