JCOIN’s Chestnut Health Systems Research Center: ​​How we Build on a Foundation of Community Engagement and Participatory Research

JCOIN’s Chestnut Health Systems Research Center utilizes community engagement and participatory research in its research division, the Lighthouse Institute. Created in 1985 to conduct community-based research, evaluation, and training, the Lighthouse Institute currently operates offices in Bloomington-Normal, IL, Chicago, IL, Eugene, OR, and Oshkosh, WI.

The Lighthouse outreach team focuses on communities in Chicago with high rates of opioid overdose and related fatalities. They ensure the communities are included in the research efforts by employing people from the communities who have lived experiences with the legal system, addiction, and recovery and by consulting community providers, local businesses, and residents. Lighthouse Institute’s community outreach efforts play an essential role in the research center’s JCOIN study. To recruit participants and begin the study intake process, the outreach team connects with people being released from the Cook County jail. The outreach team follows up to support their continued engagement in the study interventions and study interviews. To maintain contact with the participants, the outreach team works alongside approximately 20 community-based service providers, such as shelters, harm reduction programs, transitional and recovery housing providers, mobile outreach vans, treatment centers, and churches.

Further, the Chestnut Research Center utilizes Recovery Management Check-ups, an intervention platform that was evaluated through prior studies conducted by the Lighthouse Institute. The Recovery Management Check-ups (RMC) intervention aims to expand treatment access to marginalized communities in Chicago.

Implementing the RMC intervention requires several core components that other research centers can develop in their communities. These include:

  • Maintain strong ties with community stakeholders, including treatment providers, and criminal legal system stakeholders, to understand individuals’ reentry needs. Engage with individuals from those communities and consider adding them to a community advisor board to help inform outreach and intervention methods.
  • Establish data collection and management infrastructure for integrating assessments and linkage intervention worksheets.
  • Construct a team of intervention staff, including individuals with lived experience, who can readily access resources in the community and facilitate treatment access.
  • Employ a motivational interviewing expert who can train staff and conduct quality assurance.
  • Provide technical assistance for integrating interventions and clinical protocols for seamless delivery tailored to the setting (e.g., community clinic, outreach intervention, recovery resource center).

The Lighthouse team is currently developing training curricula and technical assistance materials that will serve as resources for implementing the RMC intervention in other sites. Lighthouse Institute’s outreach and RMC intervention teams embody the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion as they work with the community to expand recovery support.