Community Engagement & Education

The goal of this project is to help young people understand the power of the brain to strengthen themselves and their communities. CEEd has engaged with the youth by introducing hands-on activities that promote brain science as well as hosting community events at MIDB. The youth journalists will begin interviewing researchers and creating content to disseminate MIDB science in a more organic way.

Supported by the City of Minneapolis, the CEEd Hub and UMN Extension have developed curriculum around substance use and addiction. This curriculum is designed to engage middle school students in non-formal education settings, where interactive, hands-on learning experiences make neuroscience accessible and exciting. Each lesson incorporates activities that allow students to explore neuroscience concepts through model-building, sensory/motor/language exercises, and games.

The Bridge Center, University of Minnesota, and Regions Hospital have partnered to bring the nationally recognized Bridge model to St Paul and the HealthPartners system. Developed and delivered by CA Bridge — which has supported Emergency Department (ED)-initiated buprenorphine programs in over 300 hospitals across the country— the Bridge Foundations Program positions ED champions as leaders in providing rapid same-day access to stabilizing medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). 

Hosted on the University of Minnesota's Project ECHO platform, the Bridge Foundations Program offers an eight-week intensive clinical training supplemented by ongoing case-based professional learning with individualized technical assistance for site champions and their teams. You will ideally have the following in place prior to starting the training: a lead champion, administrative support for on-site buprenorphine as medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) on formulary, and a list of considerations for post-ED referral.

Led by University of Minnesota Extension and the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy-Duluth, C.O.P.E. builds recovery capital in rural Minnesota by partnering with Tribal Nations, county public health agencies, and community organizations to prevent opioid use and support sustained recovery. Working across Aitkin, Itasca, Pine, and St. Louis counties—and with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Bois Forte Band of Chippewa—C.O.P.E. uses a recovery capital framework to strengthen community protective factors through prevention education, harm reduction, and expanded access to treatment resources.

The Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB) is partnering with First Person Responder (FPR) and Village Health Works (VHW) to design and launch an Ebola-26 Preparedness & Response initiative, a workforce development and collaborative learning effort focused on strengthening frontline outbreak response capacity through practical, community-centered education. Building on field-tested Ebola response training materials originally developed during health workforce strengthening efforts in West Africa during the 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic, the initiative will curate, modernize, and expand modular educational resources related to Risk Communication & Community Engagement (RCCE), Screening & Isolation, Infection Prevention & Control (IPC), Case Management, Psychosocial Support (PSS), and Safe & Dignified Burials. Existing materials already incorporate highly practical operational content including suspect case identification algorithms, outbreak response simulations, IPC skill stations, triage workflows, facilitator guides, and structured assessments designed to support frontline implementation and workforce readiness.

The initiative is designed not simply as a repository of Ebola educational materials, but as a scalable preparedness and workforce learning ecosystem. In addition to clinical and public health preparedness, this initiative recognizes that fear, stress, stigma, mistrust, and traumatic experiences profoundly shape how patients, health workers, and communities respond during complex public health emergencies. Drawing from trauma-informed psychoeducational frameworks and collaborative learning models, the initiative seeks to translate complex concepts related to stress, emotional contagion, teamwork, and resilience into simple and operationally relevant learning tools for frontline responders and communities. This work intentionally frames preparedness not only as a technical competency, but also as a human and relational process shaped by communication, trust, psychological safety, and social cohesion. Accordingly, our Ebola-26 Preparedness & Response initiative integrates trauma-informed communication, workforce resilience, and community trust-building strategies directly into preparedness training.

This project improves access to developmental and behavioral health services for highly mobile and geographically dispersed children, families, and caregivers in rural Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. Extension and the CEEd Hub play a critical role in elevating community voice and strengthening outreach impact. Through virtual and in-person focus groups, we engage families, service providers, and military-connected communities to identify barriers, priorities, and culturally responsive approaches to care access. This input directly shapes the design of the telehealth training and ECHO learning series, ensuring they reflect real community needs. Extension also promotes the project through conference presence and ongoing consultation, helping connect researchers with rural and military communities and advancing strategies for provider readiness, family navigation, and digital resource development.

In partnership with the Bridge Center (formally CA Bridge) and Minneapolis Health Department, the University of Minnesota is leveraging the Project ECHO model to strengthen clinical training and workforce development within the City's opioid response infrastructure. Through a hub-and-spoke approach, our ECHO platform connects subject matter experts with frontline providers across multiple clinical domains including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), the Minneapolis Mobile Medical Unit, and street medicine teams. This structure enables the rapid dissemination of evidence-based practices for low-barrier medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD), supporting consistent, high-quality care wherever individuals are reached.