Latino Research Initiative

History:   

    In 1995, two professors from the Department of Psychology and Latino and Latin American Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) initiated a set of meetings with the director of the Hispanic Community Center (HCC) to discuss links between UNL and the HCC. At about the same time, a group of UNL faculty had a series of discussions resulting from the Midwest Consortium for Latino Research conference. This MCLR working group eventually became more formalized and developed into the Latino Research Initiative (LRI). Consistent with its goal to create an interdisciplinary group, members from a number of other academic departments were invited to join the LRI. The LRI has representation from the following disciplines: Community and Regional Planning, Ethnic Studies, Family and Consumer Sciences, Latino and Latin American Studies, Psychology, and Sociology. Out of the meetings, two projects emerged: LAMP and QoL.

The goals of the LRI are to:

	Engage in culturally sensitive and competent research and programming.
	Contribute to the limited knowledge base related to the needs of the Latino community.
	Develop, implement, and evaluate programming for the Latino community.
	Disseminate information to, and learn from, practice systems, scholars, and policy-related systems that are related to addressing Latino issues and needs.

    The LRI has developed a university-community outreach and scholarship model using Boyer�s (1994) conception of the "New American College". It is embedded within four systems; the community, community agency, university, and professional community. It integrates the four scholarly functions identified by Boyer (1990); discovery, integration, application, and teaching. Additionally, it is based on the principles of a multidisciplinary team, collaboration, engagement, responsibility and commitment to the community, applied research, professional development, and serving as a resource to others. In summary, this model is designed for community and university members to engage in one or more of the four areas of scholarship that serve to improve the quality of life of the Latino/a community.

Support for LRI projects provided by:
Cooper Foundation, EducationQuest Foundation, Lincoln Credit Association, Sowers Club, UNL College of Arts and Sciences, UNL Office of the Research Council, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Woods Charitable Fund, Inc.