Training & Dissemination

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation-Vocational Rehabilitation Research is a five year grant program funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

It builds on and extends collaboration and capacity building efforts with Tribal Members, state agencies, and local communities. To this end, training is offered to those entering the MPTN-VR Research Program as Research Technicians.

Participatory Action Research Training (PAR)

Selected Tribal Members are trained in Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology in order to qualify for the Research Technician position. This extensive training prepares the Research Technician to collect one-on-one survey data within their Tribe. Skills in organization, coordination, scheduling, phone are taught along with time management and how to deal with people. The Research Technicians are trained to ask appropriate questions in order to complete the survey. Refresher training sessions are conducted during the year to keep the Research Technicians abreast of changes.

The MPTN-VR Research Training Plan will include additional training sessions.  This Plan is in progress. Look for it soon.

Dissemination

disseminate: To scatter or spread widely.

The MPTN-VR Research project, funded by NIDRR, will soon be completing the Tribal community health and disability data collection portion of the project, and shortly will be entering the 5th and final year of its 5 year NIDRR grant. In accordance with the original grant proposal submitted to NIDRR in 2003, the 5th year of the grant is to be dedicated to the dissemination of the results of the data collected from the 4 collaborating Eastern Tribes. In Year 3 of the grant a dissemination team was created, consisting of Dr. Felicia Wilkins-Turner, Principal Investigator/Research Coordinator for the grant; Kathi Higley, Research Administrative Assistant; Dr. Diane Liebert, Grant Evaluator; Chung-Fan (Fran) Ni, UCONN research graduate assistant; Dr. Valerie Ellien, former PI and now a research consultant to the grant; and Dr. Corinne Harrington, former UCONN research graduate assistant and now a research consultant to the grant, and during the latter part of Year 3 the team began disseminating some of the preliminary results of the research. The team continued its dissemination work throughout Year 4, with presentations at such professional venues as:

• (Yr 3) 2006 American Psychological Association (APA) annual conference (August);
• (Yr 3) 2006 Northeastern Educational Research Association (NERA) annual conference (October);
• (Yr 4) 2007 National Council on Rehabilitation Education (NCRE) Spring Conference (February);
• 2007 National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) annual conference (March);
• 2007 APA annual conference (August);
• 2007 Minority Women's Health Summit (August);
• 2007 National Indian Health Board (NIHB) conference (September);
• 2007 National Rehabilitation Counseling Association (NRCA) conference (October); and
• 2007 NERA annual conference (October).

In Year 5 the team plans to further disseminate the results of the research project at the following professional conferences:

• Hawaii International Conference on Education (HICE), January 2008;
• NASP annual conference, February 2008;
• American Counseling Association (ACA) conference, March 2008;
• American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual conference, March 2008;
• APA annual conference, August 2008.

There are also plans to produce articles for publication in professional journals to further the dissemination of the project's research results.

TribalVR.org