The Community Engagement Scholarship Award honors Adrian Blow, associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies, and the Michigan Army National Guard for their partnership in studying risk, resilience and coping in National Guard families post deployment, and in developing interventions for these personnel and for community mental health professions based on the study's findings.
Blow’s research focuses on studying reintegration processes, including risk and resiliency factors, of National Guard soldiers and their families post deployment. His research has contributed to the understanding of both individual issues and familial processes that help these members and their families survive a stressful combat deployment.
This partnership between the Michigan Army National Guard and Adrian Blow and his team at Michigan State University has been active for the past decade. A major goal of this partnership has been to understand and to improve the reintegration processes of National Guard Service members and their families. This partnership has resulted in improved reintegration programs post deployment, the Buddy-to-Buddy peer-to-peer support program and the training of almost 800 mental health providers around the state of Michigan on working effectively with military personnel and their families. Finally, this partnership has resulted in nearly $3 million dollars in funding, more than 20 publications and a feature story on the Big Ten Network’s series LiveBig.
This university-community collaboration provides an excellent example of the scholarship-guided outreach that Michigan State University is committed to as a land-grant university. Such collaborations are systematic, have practical and theoretical significance and include a mutually beneficial relationship between MSU and a community partner. This particular partnership merits recognition for making a difference in the lives of military veterans and their family members. In addition, this work has revolutionized and strengthened the practice of mental health providers around the state in their ability to offer evidence-based care to military veterans and their families.