UNM Health Sciences has recognized the significant role of Professor Lorenda Belone in the creation of the Family Listening Program (FLP) for Northern New Mexico families. The program, which has been active for over two decades, has empowered young people to establish connections with tribal elders.
The success of the program is largely attributed to its collaboration with Tribal research teams and community partners through a method known as community-based participatory research (CBPR). This approach ensures cultural relevance, community ownership, and sustained impact beyond the life span of research grants. According to a press release by UNM Health Sciences, Dr. Belone stresses the essential inclusion of community voices and outlines the program's objectives: meeting with tribal leaders, adapting methods to cultural dynamics, and implementing the FLP program while continually assessing alignment with community needs and goals.
In the same press release, Belone emphasized the significance of the program saying, "This program is so important, and even without research dollars, the communities in between research grants have sustained the programs because they've seen the positives. One community created a whole program around making sure that the staff is fully supported in between programs and has developed prevention programs."
Belone further explained that their model is not confined to Tribal communities; it serves as a template for communities everywhere. She said, "Tribal Research Teams will eventually become the coaches. Really that's what implementation science is, and I think that's why we've had recent requests to share this work."
For 23 years now, Dr. Belone has been actively involved in community-based participatory health research aimed at addressing health disparities in Indigenous communities of Southwest America. Her notable contributions include collaborative studies on evidence-based family interventions and national research on partnering processes for CBPR. In 2020, she secured a second NIH R01 study where she led a dissemination and implementation research project on Indigenous family interventions. Additionally, Dr. Belone heads the Community Engagement and Dissemination Core of the Transdisciplinary Research Equity & Engagement (TREE) Center, as stated in the HSC Faculty Directory webpage provided by UNM Health Sciences.
