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News Release

 

$1.9 Million Federal Grant Launches UAlbany Child Welfare,
Drug Abuse and Intergenerational Risk Center

Contact: Lisa James Goldsberry (518) 437-4980

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 23, 2003) -- The University at Albany School of Social Welfare has established the Child Welfare, Drug Abuse and Intergenerational Risk Center (CWDAIR Center) to advance research on the delivery of effective services for parents in the child welfare system with addiction and co-occurring problems, including HIV/AIDS.

The nationally ranked school received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to promote healthy child development in environments where drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, and child welfare intersect.

"The award of this major grant attests to the national prestige of our faculty. The grant will support a critically important program which helps to fulfill the University's pledge to foster collaborative, productive alliances with government and private sector partners to lead research in critical areas of societal change," said University at Albany President Karen R. Hitchcock. "We are enormously energized by its potential for creating positive change through responsible research."

"This exciting grant initiates a program of important research on child welfare, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS issues. It represents partnerships among research, practitioner and policy communities and has the potential to lead to multiple large and groundbreaking studies in the future," said Katharine Briar-Lawson, dean of the School of Social Welfare. "Research programs at the School of Social Welfare are entering a new era with this award."

Specifically, the center will:

� Build a research infrastructure at the School of Social Welfare that will support faculty in designing state-of-the art research on substance use in high-risk families.

� Develop collaborative partnerships with state agency leaders and professionals from child welfare, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS services to improve the design of services to address substance abuse and co-occurring problems among high-risk parents.

Current projects funded as part of the center include the ongoing study Inter-Agency Collaborative Relationships and Effective Treatment Services for Child Welfare Clients by UAlbany Social Welfare Professor Brenda Smith to advance understanding of factors that promote the formation of collaborative relationships across child welfare and substance abuse treatment agencies. A second study, Predictors of Drug Relapse in HIV-infected Women: An exploration of the Unified Theory of Behavior, authored by Bonnie Carlson of the School of Social Welfare, investigates the predictors of relapse following drug treatment in HIV-positive mothers.

The Child Welfare, Drug Abuse and Intergenerational Risk Center will be housed in the School of Social Welfare, directed by UAlbany Social Welfare Professor Philip McCallion. Center co-directors include Carolyn Smith, Barry Loneck and James Jaccard. These preliminary studies, and those that may be funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in upcoming years will promote better services for families and children with multiple needs.


Established in 1844 and designated a center of the State University of New York in 1962, the University at Albany's broad mission of excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, research and public service engages 17,000 diverse students in eight degree-granting schools and colleges. The University is engaged in a $500 million fundraising campaign, the most ambitious in its history, with the goal of placing it among the nation's top 30 public research universities by the end of the decade. For more information about this nationally ranked University, visit www.albany.edu


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