How Culture Impacts the Dissemination and Implementation of Innovation: A Case Study of the Families and Schools Together Program (FAST) for Preventing Violence with Immigrant Latino Youth

We consider how culture impacts the translation of research into practice, focusing on the culture of the client and the culture of the agency implementing selected programs. We build on lessons learned from a pilot study of an evidence-based family-school partnership, Families and Schools Together (FAST), to prevent youth violence with low-income, immigrant Latino families in Southern California. We examine the impact of cultural characteristics on the translation of this innovation into practice at the community level, relying on an interactive systems framework developed recently by Wandersman and colleagues (2008, American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(3–4), in press) discussed in this issue. As we point out, the culture of the client and the culture of the agency can facilitate or impede connections within and across these interactive systems.