Building Essential Evidence Through AOTF Grants
2023 American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) Implementation Research Grant Recipient Angela Shierk, PhD, OTR, and her research partner at Texas Woman’s University, Heather Roberts, PhD, OTR, recently secured a $285,000 Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award through its Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award Program.
This funding supports the launch of the “Cerebral Palsy Training and Research Assessment and Intervention Network (CP-TRAIN)” initiative, which will work alongside therapists, families, and other community partners to develop accessible educational resources and promote evidence-based cerebral palsy care.
CP-TRAIN builds directly on research supported by AOTF’s Implementation Research Grant, which enabled the team to collect critical preliminary data demonstrating both the promise and the real-world complexity of implementing caregiver-engaged and evidence–based interventions for children with cerebral palsy.
Through the Implementation Research Grant-funded study, Shierk, Roberts, and their research team gathered preliminary data on the implementation of Therapy Together, an evidence-based intervention for infants with unilateral cerebral palsy and their families.
This study highlighted that both therapists and families were willing and able to participate in a caregiver-supported intervention model, serving as active partners in the intervention process. Both therapists and families emphasized the importance of a shared infrastructure for education, communication, problem-solving, and partnership.
Beyond the important findings, the study helped the research team demonstrate their ability to recruit and engage therapists and families, deliver a structured intervention, collect meaningful patient-centered outcomes, and build the essential evidence needed to secure future funding opportunities.
“In many ways, AOTF funding served as the bridge between an intervention idea and a fundable, stakeholder-driven infrastructure project.” — Dr. Shierk and Dr. Roberts
Engaging Family and Therapist Partners
Throughout the study, one thing was clear to the research team: the importance of establishing sustained partnerships between families and therapists.
Families wanted to understand the “why” behind the therapy. Not only did they want to know what exercises to do, but they also wanted to know how the exercises connected to their child’s brain development, daily participation, and long-term possibilities.
For therapists, it was clear that implementing evidence-based interventions in practice required more than publishing research or providing a protocol. Successful implementation requires training, mentorship, practical tools, and opportunities to learn alongside families and other stakeholders.
Expanding Partner Capacity Through CP-TRAIN
Both findings helped shape the core of what CP-TRAIN is: a capacity-building initiative focused on how we prepare therapists, families, students, researchers, and community partners to carry this work forward.
CP-TRAIN is designed to build capacity among these groups through accessible training modules, stakeholder engagement, and resources that support evidence-based cerebral palsy care in real-world settings.
“A key message in the PCORI application was that families and therapists are ready to engage, but they need accessible, practical, and trustworthy infrastructure to do so. The AOTF-funded study gave us direct experience and preliminary evidence to support that claim.” — Dr. Shierk and Dr. Roberts
Advancing the Next Step in the Research Process
Due to the generosity of AOTF’s donors and partners, Shierk, Roberts, and their research team were able to generate the preliminary data, partnerships, and implementation experience necessary to grow this project into a larger, federally funded initiative.
The evidence and partnerships built through this study helped the team develop the new PCORI-funded CP-TRAIN initiative, which will forge a pathway for therapists, families, and community partners to implement stronger, more patient-centered cerebral palsy care for children.
Thank you to Angela Shierk, PhD, OTR, and Heather Roberts, PhD, OTR, for their collaboration in writing this article. We also recognize our partner organization, the National Board Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) for their generous support in making our Implementation Research Grant program possible.
“The donor investment did not stop with one study. It helped create the foundation for a broader training and engagement network that has the potential to influence clinical practice, family education, research readiness, and ultimately the lives of children with cerebral palsy and their families.” — Dr. Shierk and Dr. Roberts
Get Involved: Make A Gift Today
Want to help launch the next project that will promote evidence-based care in occupational therapy? Make a gift today to help us build the early-stage evidence and partnerships that will lead to more scalable, federally funded initiatives.