The Doorway project is a University of Washington and YouthCare-led initiative focusing on addressing youth homelessness in the University District through continuous community-engaged collaboration with U District service providers and community members. The primary aim of the project is to center the voices of youth and young adults in the U-district who are experiencing homelessness in order to co-develop and evaluate a comprehensive and effective model that reduces youth homelessness and improves quality of life for all affected.
Practice Type: Community-Based Organizations
The Life Enhancing Alcohol-management Program 2.0 (LEAP 2.0)
LEAP 2.0 builds on a longstanding partnership between the UW HaRRT Center and housing first residents, staff, and management of DESC. The pilot program was developed through a community based participatory research framework, and entails low-barrier, community-level, house-wide resident programming—including leadership opportunities, activities, and pathways to recovery. Results from the pilot indicated that LEAP participants reported more engagement in meaningful activities than their control counterparts. Further, higher levels of engagement with the LEAP predicted significant reductions in alcohol use and alcohol-related harm. To build on these promising findings, in LEAP 2.0, we will be conducting a 10-site, cluster-randomized controlled trial to assess LEAPs impact on substance use, health, cost and service utilization, as well as quality of life outcomes.
Care Partners: bridging families, clinics, and communities to advance late-life depression care
Through Archstone Foundation’s Depression in Late-Life Initiative, the Care Partners project seeks to improve depression care for older adults by building innovative and effective community partnerships. Specifically, the Care Partners project has the following goals: 1) develop late-life depression innovations among primary care, community-based organizations (CBOs) and family, 2) build a learning community of clinics, CBOs, and researchers in California who will work together on the Care Partners Late-Life Depression Initiative to improve care for depressed older adults, 3) conduct an evaluation of the developing models, and 4) develop and conduct a Learning Collaborative in Year 5 for California clinics and CBOs interested in improving depression care for older adults. Throughout the project, project teams at the University of Washington (UW) and UC Davis (UCD) provide technical assistance and evaluation to support site development and sustainment. Together, the community-engaged partnerships have tremendous potential to improve access to care, patient engagement, patient care experience and quality of care. In addition, CBO and clinic partners are well primed to improve care through addressing the social determinants of health.
