The Jane Addams Substance Abuse Research Collaboration (JASARC) would like to invite any student with interest to participate in our ongoing series of meetings, seminars, and research projects. JASARC is a 5-year project with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to build research infrastructure at the College. We are now in our third year of funding. Our mission is to enhance the research capabilities of College faculty and students through supporting and developing coordinated programs of research, with a focus on women, the criminal justice system, and substance abuse. Investigators who collaborate on JASARC also study issues related to: HIV/AIDS, health-care disparities, co-occurring psychiatric and substance abuse disorders, co-occurring medical disorders, screening and diagnostic issues, community re-entry from jail and prison, substance abuse among the transgendered, specialized assessment and treatment for women, homelessness, and the effects of substance abuse and treatment on caregiving and parenting. Our collaboration is inter-disciplinary and inter-collegiate with investigators from the Survey Research Laboratory, the School of Public Health, and the Department of Psychiatry as well as from Loyola University and Texas Christian University as part of our investigative team.

As part of our work, we want to strongly support and encourage the development of Jane Addams students by providing opportunities to become engaged in research through ongoing pilot studies and program evaluations, through financial support from our minority scholars program, through active mentoring, and through encouraging students to develop and submit proposals to federal and foundation funding sources. We also have meetings and seminars throughout the semester, mostly on Friday mornings, when faculty discuss the status of their research, present study findings and methodological advances, and invite researchers from community-based organizations to present on their programs of research and opportunities for collaboration. Occasionally, we invite scholars with national and international reputations in a substance-related area to present as part of our Distinguished Lecturer Series.

If you would be interested in learning more about JASARC, we invite you to regularly visit this web site where we will be regularly updating announcements about available research assistant positions, and scholarship and funding opportunities. We also invite you to become part of our mailing list whereby we provide regular announcements of JASARC meetings and activities throughout the semester. To join our mailing list, please contact Kim Weber, JASARC Project Coordinator, at jasarcinfo@uic.edu.