CHPPR Research Projects
Current research projects are listed below. Click a project title to go its detail page.
Be Legendary - Developing a Multi-Component Teen Pregnancy Prevention Intervention for Male Teens
A theoretically-based and youth-centered approach to reduce unplanned teen birth among male adolescentsBrief Interventions to Create Smoke-Free Home Policies in Low-Income Households
To increase protection of healthy children and non-smoking adults from secondhand smoke, exposure, we developed the Smoke-Free Homes Program: Some Things are Better Outside (SFHs). This is a minimally intensive program with three mailings and a single counseling telephone call, implemented in partnership with 2-1-1 social services information and referral (I&R) systems.Care Coordination for Complex Cancer Survivors in an Integrated Safety-net System
The project involves implementing care coordination strategies shown to be effective for primary care conditions among complex cancer survivors at Parkland Health & Hospital System.Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, Community Engagement Component
This project focuses on the Community Engagement component of the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS)Child home safety in Hispanic and rural communities: A community health worker intervention
Unintentional injuries in the home environment are a leading cause of preventable death among children. In partnership with the Office of Border Public Health, UTHealth is developing and pilot testing a culturally tailored, community health worker driven intervention to address child home safety hazards.Cluster Randomized Trial of School-Based Program to Prevent Teen Dating Violence
The goal of this study (sub-contracted from the University of Texas Medical Branch) is to rigorously evaluate the middle school version of Fourth R, an effective high school dating violence prevention program.Enhanced Integrated Treatment Program with Sexual Health in Recovery (EITP-SHIR)
The Montrose Center is subcontracting with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health to evaluate an evidence-based intervention, Enhanced Integrated Treatment Program with Sexual Health in Recovery (EITP-SHIR), implemented by the Center. This is a SAMHSA-funded project that aims to increase access to treatment for African American and Latino GBTQ+ persons and PLWH reporting chemsex. The EITP-SHIR program uses the Integrated Treatment Program (ITP) plus an assessment of client’s sexual health, shame about sexual behavior, and chemsex.Evaluation of Texas Association of Community Health Centers Initiative for Trauma Informed Care
This project is an evaluation of the Texas Association of Community Health Centers initiative to implement a trauma informed care approach in community health centers. Trauma informed care is a collection of approaches that calls for a change in organizational culture, where an emphasis is placed on understanding, respecting and appropriately responding to individual well being and the effects of traumas at all levels.Everyone counts: Promoting Census participation along the U.S. Mexico Border
To make sure historically undercounted populations along the Texas-Mexico border are included in the 2020 census, UTHealth is joining forces with the U.S. Census Bureau, community health workers, and local organizations to launch a collaborative campaign in the El Paso region.Graduate Training Program in Breast Cancer Disparities at UTSPH
The goal of the training program is to train a new cadre of innovative and highly skilled researchers and practitioners, preferably from populations that are disproportionately affected by breast cancer, who are committed to the elimination of breast cancer disparities.
Houston Health Department Teen Dating and Youth Violence Prevention Strategy
The purpose of this project is to lead the evaluation of multifaceted primary prevention approach encompasses both individual- and community-level strategies to prevent youth and teen dating violence in high-risk communities.
HRSA Opioid Workforce Expansion Program (OWEP) ¬- Recovery Support Peer Specialists
Through the Opioid Workforce Expansion Program (OWEP) Recovery Support Peer Specialists Project, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), in collaboration with RecoveryPeople, an experienced training entity, will establish a network of workforce development hubs across Texas in order to enhance community-based experiential training for students preparing to become Recovery Support Peer Specialists (RSPS) and/or related peer paraprofessional roles that serve persons with opioid use disorder (OUD) and other substance use disorders (SUD) in high need and high demand communities along the Texas-Mexico Border, in rural counties and in Hurricane disaster relief areas.Me & You-Tech: A socio-ecological Solution to Teen Dating Violence for the Digital Age
The goal of this 3 year Fast-Track STTR is to develop and evaluate a multi-level (youth, parent, school) Internet-based teen dating violence (DV) prevention program, ‘Me & You-Tech’ (MYT), for predominantly racial/ethnic-minority 6th--grade middle school students.
Methodology and Advanced Analytics Resource Center (MAARC) | NIH/NIDA U2C DA050098
Site PI (a Core Methodology Leader for Social Network Analysis). This project proposes advanced bi-directional data sharing, analytics, and modeling capacities to provide new scientific insights into interventions at the intersection of opioid use and justice contexts. The MAARC (at the University of Chicago) will support these capabilities within opioid clinical trials implemented within justice contexts, serving as one of the 12 research hubs of a U2 consortium project that comprises a national network of investigators of JCOIN (the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network).Minimizing novel Coronavirus exposure at small businesses with community health workers
The goal of this project is to mitigate the occurrence of COVID-19 infections in El Paso by minimizing the chance of novel coronavirus exposure at small businesses and micro enterprises. To accomplish this goal, the project will implement a Community Health Worker (CHW) driven work safer program with small businesses in El Paso, helping them implement recommended safeguards for their industryMobilizing Community Partnerships for Effective Sex Education in Middle School
While significant progress has been made in the development of effective programs to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections among youth, there has been little progress made in their widespread dissemination to schools. Using community-based participatory research methods, researchers at UTHealth developed iCHAMPSS, an innovative, theory- and Web-based decision support system designed to facilitate the adoption, implementation, and maintenance of adolescent sexual health evidence-based programs in schools.
Network Dynamics of Syphilis Coinfection within Biomedical Prevention | NIH/NIAID 1R21AI13948
This project takes biological, behavioral, and epidemiological perspectives to investigate complex syphilis-HIV transmission dynamic processes, coevolved with sex behavioral dynamic, and sexual network dynamic, and risk reduction behavioral dynamic among young Black men who have sex with men at the aim of creating effective syphilis eliminations interventions for most-at-risk population in the United States.


Project Evaluation of Comprehensive Case Management for Sexual and Gender Minorities
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health is a sub-contractor for the Montrose Center on a SAMHSA-funded project that aims to increase access to treatment for LGBTQ+ persons and People Living with HIV (PLWH) who have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders; and increase coordination and integration between service lines and with peer services to produce better outcomes for clients.Proyecto Vales+Tú: A Program to Prevent Injury Disparities Among Latino Day Laborers
Latino day laborers (LDL) experience a disproportionately high rate of on-the-job injuries and fatalities compared with other workers in the US. The aims of this study were to identify intervention priorities then to design and pilot a culturally responsive safety intervention program.
Randomized trial of a data-driven technical assistance system for drug prevention coalitions
This 5-year project will study the effectiveness of the Coalition Check-Up technical assistance system for supporting community coalition implementation of evidence-based drug prevention programs. The model is a low-cost and generalizable approach for supporting coalitions to achieve community-wide reductions in youth substance abuse.Sexual and Gender Minority Cancer Curricular Advances for Research and Education (SGM Cancer CARE)
Major Goals: To design an up-to-date, useful, competency-based, modular workshop curriculum, which we titled SGM Cancer CARE (Sexual and Gender Minority Cancer: Curricular Advances for Research and Education), for providing participants with knowledge and skills to begin conducting high-quality and culturally appropriate research to improve SGM care across the cancer care Continuum.Spanish MINDSET: Expanding and Validating a Self-Management Tool for the Hispanic Community
The goal of this project is to develop a Spanish version of an epilepsy self-management decision-support system and test the efficacy of both the Spanish and English versions on epilepsy self-management in Hispanic patients attending four clinic sites near the Mexico border in Arizona and Texas.

Text-based smoking cessation intervention for sexual and gender minority groups
Major Goals: To prospectively explore the feasibility of a tailored text-based intervention for smoking cessation targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender smokers
Unidas por Vida y Salud: Increasing Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening in El Paso
The proposed prevention program Unidas por Vida y Salud (United for Life and Health) uses evidence-based strategies, including promotora-delivered educational sessions and client reminders, to increase both uptake of breast and cervical cancer screening and repeat screening among low income, uninsured or under-insured Hispanic women in El Paso.YMAP: Young Men’s Affiliation Project of HIV Risk and Prevention Venue | NIH/NIMH 1R01MH100021
This project conducts a multisite longitudinal network study to investigate the HIV/STD risk and protective behaviors associated with social networks created by venue affiliations among young men who have sex with men (YMSM) ages 16-29 years. This study is conducted in two cities (Houston and Chicago).