About Us

The Consultation Center at Yale seeks to generate knowledge and guide the development and refinement of interventions to promote individual and community wellness and to prevent mental health and substance use challenges. In partnership with community members, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers, we bring social and behavioral science to the community through rigorous research and evaluation, consultation, training, capacity building, and policy development. Below are values that guide our work.

1. We are grounded in scientific evidence and informed by different ways of knowing to:
   1. Conduct research, program evaluation, quality improvement, and scholarship to generate knowledge.
   2. Partner with communities to co-create opportunities to generate knowledge about effective community-driven solutions.
   3. Translate research findings so that they are useful and practical for the public, policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.
2. We collaborate with community members, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to foster authentic, transparent, and productive partnerships that focus on community-centered solutions.
3. We work with and amplify the voices of all populations and communities to promote wellness.
4. We seek fairness and justice so that individuals and communities have opportunities, resources, and supports.
5. We embrace differences and consider context and systems to conceptualize problems and interventions.
6. We practice and model intellectual humility. We seek and are receptive to feedback from others and convene partners to facilitate the sharing of divergent opinions.

The Center conducts both partner-initiated and center-initiated research and services.

Partner-initiated research and services

Partner-initiated work starts with a request from external funder or stakeholder for assistance conducting research or designing, implementing, or evaluating a program. For example, a service provider may request that we develop a program for seniors or a school may ask us to offer parent or teacher training in youth development. Another example might involve conducting a statewide study of at-risk children and families based on a state agency request.

Center-initiated research and services

Center-initiated work originates with a member of our faculty or professional staff in order to address a gap in knowledge or practice. For example, faculty members may apply for federal support to conduct research on intimate partner violence or the prevention of adolescent substance abuse, or professional staff may seek to implement a program or service, such as a youth development program. The vast majority of center-initiated research or service involves extensive collaboration with community stakeholders.

How partner- and center-initiated work results in collaboration

Once a collaboration is formed, usually with one or more stakeholders, we engage in various activities to determine whether a joint venture is feasible, useful, and sustainable. This process usually involves engagement with community stakeholders, such as funders, the individuals or groups the project is intending to impact, and professional staff, collaborative planning to carry out the work, implementation, and if appropriate, evaluation, and finally, dissemination.