Community Partnerships Research and Practice Corner

Published: December 2, 2025

The Community Partnership and Practice Corner highlights collaborative, community-engaged research and practice initiatives conducted in the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living. Projects featured in this corner use mixed-methods approaches and strong local partnerships to identify needs, assets, and opportunities for improving child health, family and overall resident health in Central Texas. Recent efforts include assessments of physical activity landscapes in Travis County, roadway safety in Austin’s Montopolis community, out-of-school-time activity supports in Houston’s Acres Homes neighborhood, and an evaluation of the HEART ATX project—a community health worker-led initiative promoting COVID-19 mitigation and healthy living. These projects exemplify how academic-community partnerships drive actionable insights and strategies to create healthier, more active communities.

Travis County Physical Activity Landscape Assessment (2023-2024): This community assessment explores the needs, assets and opportunities for physical activity and active living in partnership with the Austin/Travis County community of Texas. Based in a mixed methods approach that included a secondary analysis of existing data, key informant interviews, and a scoping review of community assessments from the past 10 years, key findings include documentation of disparities in leisure-time physical activity by city/community within Travis County as well as the identification of a range of assets and recommendations for advancing active living in Travis County (PI: Springer; Funder: UT MD Anderson Cancer Prevention Platform).

Mapping Opportunities for Roadway Safety in Partnership with the Montopolis Community (2024-2025): This young-adult engaged community assessment explores the barriers and facilitating factors for roadway safety and active commuting in the Montopolis area of Austin, Texas via the lens of young adults, who represent a higher risk population for road-related injury. Guided by a mixed methods approach that included analysis of existing data, photovoice, walkability audits, and peer interviews, this report provides key insights into disparities in roadway safety for Montopolis, documentation of built environment supports and challenges for walking, biking and public transit use, and rich insights into the factors that support and impede roadway safety and active commuting among young adults (Co-Leads: Springer, Treviño & Salvo; Funder: City of Austin).

Exploring the activation of environmental supports for child out-of-school-time physical activity in partnership with the Acres Homes community of Houston, Texas: A pilot community assessment study of needs and opportunities (2024-25). This pilot community assessment reports on the barriers, assets, and opportunities for promotion of child out-of-school-time (OST) physical activity in partnership with the Acres Homes community of Houston, Texas. This mixed methods assessment included analysis of existing Texas School Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) data, a parent survey of OST physical activity, assessment school park utilization (SOPARC), and key informant interviews with parents, school leaders, and community PA providers. Multiple strengths and assets of the Acres Homes community are explored, along with disparities and opportunities for further promotion of child OST physical activity (PI: Springer; Funder: UT MD Anderson/NIH).

Austin/Travis County Chronic Disease Community Health Workers - Train, Deploy and Engage Project “The HEART ATX Project” (2021-24). The final report presents findings on a 3-year evaluation of a community health worker-led initiative (HEART ATX) aimed at mitigating COVID-19 via COVID-19 vaccination outreach, social service referral to address social determinants, and promotion of healthy living classes and opportunities (Co-Leads: Springer, van den Berg & Helfman; Funder: CDC/City of Austin).