Translation of the Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP) for Drug Treatment Clinic Implementation

Research Method: Intervention Research (Translational)
Principal Investigator: Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D.
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) 1 R34DA030248
Dates of Study: 2010-2013

Project Summary
The purpose of this study is to translate the Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP), a successful peer-delivered intervention that was designed to promote HIV/hepatitis/STI risk reduction in networks of drug injectors and crack users, for use in drug treatment clinics, and to pilot test the modified intervention design. We are partnering with the Hartford Dispensary to conduct this translational intervention study.
Link for more details


IDU Peer Recruitment Dynamics and Network Structure in Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS)

Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigator: JiangHong Li, M.D., M.S.
Grant:National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)1R01DA031594
Dates of Study: 2011-2014

Project Summary
Our interdisciplinary research team proposes to recruit a typical RDS sample of 500 IDUs in Hartford, Connecticut, a medium size city with a significant IDU population. Comprehensive social network surveys at recruitment and at 2-month follow-up will generate network data beyond the 500 participants and allow mapping of multiple networks within the IDU sample. These data will be used in ego-centric and sociometric network analyses to better understand the complex social network structures of IDUs in the context of RDS implementation. Sixty qualitative in-depth interviews (20 drawn early, mid-way, and late in the sampling process) conducted 2 months after baseline surveys will assess IDUs’ actual peer recruitment experiences and change in their multi-layered social network composition and structures related to RDS peer recruitment processes. Computer simulation will be used to assess the sensitivity of potential assumption violations.

Link for more details

MDMA and STD/HIV Risk among Hidden Networks of Ecstasy-Using Young Adults

Research Method: Basic Research

Principal Investigator: Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D, PI; Sarah Diamond, Ph.D, Co-PI
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Dates of Study: 2007-2010

Project Summary

The purpose of this study is to discover whether and in what ways MDMA contributes to sexual behavior and decision making, and when its use is associated with lack of protection. One component of the study will examine the current status of ecstasy use and distribution, at a time when use appears to be rising, and perceptions of risk are low. In a second, the study will explore beliefs or scripts about MDMA use, where and why it is used and whether it is connected to sexual risk taking. The study also will obtain from current users real life stories of MDMA use and sexual behavior and use new analytic techniques to tease out when MDMA makes a difference in sexual decisions and when it does not. The goal is to build an intervention that  enhances agency by identifying and promoting continued use of protection in situations where protection is typically used, while avoiding situations when it is not. 

Link for more details

Place-based Social Marketing to Prevent Party Drug Use among Urban Youth: Xperience Project

Research Method: Intervention

Principal Investigator: Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D., ICR, Leslie Snyder, Ph.D., UConn Center for Health Communication & Marketing (Co-PI), Sarah Diamond, Ph.D., ICR (Co-PI)

Grant: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 P01 CD000237-01.

Partners: Center for Health Communication and Marketing at the University of Connecticut, Young Studios, Mi Casa Family Services and Educational Center

Dates of Study: 2006-2008

Project Summary

The Xperience project is designed to support Connecticut youth between ages 14-20 in their decision not to use drugs by working with them to create alternative drug-free entertainment events.  In 2006-2007, Xperience produced 5 live entertainment shows containing drug prevention messages.  These free performances featured 16 different performing artists (individuals and groups) and were attended by over 200 youth from in and around Hartford.  The Xperience project also produces professionally recorded and mastered CDs featuring young up-and-coming artists who promote drug-free lifestyles through their works of art.

Link for more details

High Risk Crack Use Settings and HIV in El Salvador

Research Method: Basic Research

Principal Investigator: Julia Dickson-Gomez, Ph.D., Principal Investigator;

Margaret Weeks, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator; Mauricio Gaborit, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator; Ernesto Alfonso Selva-Sutter, Ph.D., Co-Investigator

Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse R01 DA 020350

Partners: Fundación Antidrogas de El Salvador (FUNDASALVA); Universidad Centroamericana José Simeon Cañas

In collaboration with local partners and communities, this four-year study will combine qualitative and quantitative research methods to examine the intersection of community structural factors, the micro-social context of crack use and sales, and HIV risk among crack users in metropolitan San Salvador. In the project’s first phase, staff will conduct community observations, focus groups and in-depth interviews in nine communities. The ethnographic findings will be presented to residents and advisory/working groups formed in each of the nine communities. The formative  research will inform the development of a quantitative survey during the second phase that will be administered to 540 crack smokers including a follow-up interview after 6 months. In the final phase of the project, staff will collaborate with the community advisory/working groups to develop a multi-level intervention that will be tested for acceptability and feasibility through focus groups with community leaders and crack users.

Link for more details

Longitudinal Study of the RAP Peer Intervention for HIV Prevention
Research Method: Intervention
Principal Investigator: Margaret R. Weeks, PhD.
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) 1 R01 DA13356
Partners: Community residents (Peer Health Advocates)
Dates of Study: 2005-2008

Project Summary
This 3-year study is a continuation of ICR's Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP), a peer-delivered intervention study that trained active injection drug users (IDUs) and crack cocaine users to disseminate prevention messages and materials to their drug and sex risk networks at drug-use and community sites. The Longitudinal Study of the RAP Peer Intervention for HIV Prevention will continue to evaluate RAP by assessing: the long-term effects of the Peer Health Advocate (PHA) training program and intervention on HIV risk reduction attitudes and behaviors among PHAs, their drug using networks and the larger drug using community in Hartford, CT; and the factors that will successfully sustain the intervention over time. The project's integration of qualitative and quantitative methods includes re-interviewing trainees from the original study and their contacts with a risk behavior and health attitudes survey, continued observation of drug use sites, periodic in-depth interviews with PHAs and their drug using peers, and a community-wide survey of 500 members of Hartford's drug using population during the project's third year.
Link for more details

Crack Use and Related Sexual Risk in El Salvador
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigator: Julia Dickson-Gomez, Ph.D.
Grant: Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, Yale University, through the National Institutes of Mental Health (P30 MH 62294)
Partners: Fundación Antidrogas de El Salvador (FUNDASALVA); Universidad Centroamericana José Simeon Cañas

Dates of Study: 2002-2005

Project Summary

This pilot study used qualitative in-depth interviews with 23 crack smoking women and 15 crack smoking men in the greater metropolitan area of San Salvador, El Salvador to investigate the relationship between crack use and high-risk sexual behaviors. A smaller sample of 20 female sex workers was also interviewed to determine different pathways into drug use and in HIV risk behaviors. Findings will be used to identify components of an HIV risk reduction intervention for these populations, which are particularly vulnerable to contracting HIV.

Link for more details

Urban Lifestyles: Club Drugs, Resource Inequities and Health Risks in Urban Youth
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D. (PI), Raul Pino, M.D. (Co-PI) Gary Burkholder, Ph.D. (Co-Investigator), Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D. (Co-Investigator)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (RFA DA-010101)
Dates of Study: 2001-2006
The purpose of this five-year study is to identify the contextual, socio-cultural, economic, psychological and health-related predictors and consequences of incorporating club and prescription drugs into urban youth drug repertoires, and the ways in which these factors interact over time. The study also examines how media, drug markets, marketing procedures and other economic factors influence the introduction and distribution of new drugs in urban communities, and how youth culture is used to promote norms favoring new drug use.
Link for more details

View findings from this project

HIV Prevention in High-Risk Drug Use Sites: Project RAP
Research Method: Intervention Research
Principal Investigators: Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D. (PI),
Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D. (Co-PI)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (1-R01-DA13356)
Partners: Hispanic Health Council
Dates of Study: 2001-2005
The Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP) project is a cutting-edge, four-year study measuring HIV prevention adoption by individual drug users in Hartford, CT through the conduct, documentation and evaluation of an intervention model that involves active drug users as public health advocates in the diffusion of risk reduction messages and products through peer networks and drug-use settings.
Link for more details

Housing Status/Stability and HIV Risk Among Drug Users

Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Julia Dickson-Gomez, Ph.D., (PI), Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D., (Co-PI)

Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse

Dates of Study: 2004-2005

The role of structural factors in HIV prevention research with drug users requires further study. An area that may have significant impact on the context in which drug and sex-related HIV risk occurs, is housing status and the role of housing policies in limiting drug users' access to stable housing. This study uses qualitative research to examine the relationship between housing policy, neighborhood characteristics, and personal factors that affect drug users' housing status and stability, and the relationship between housing status and stability and HIV risk.

Link for more details


Effects of Partner Violence Victimization in Drug Using Women (SAVA II)
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Merrill Singer, Ph.D. (PI), Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D. (Co-PI)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse 1 R01 DA13140 - Lead grantee: Hispanic Health Council
Partners: Hispanic Health Council, Institute for Community Research
Dates of Study: 2000-2003
This three-year project, led by the Hispanic Health Council, examines the relationship between drug use, partner violence victimization, and HIV risk among inner city women. The study investigates how partner violence impacts frequency of drug use, readiness for drug treatment, drug-related sexual risk for HIV and other STDs, and actions to leave abusive relationships.
Link for more details

Supplement to Pathways to High-Risk Drug Abuse Among Urban Youth: Club Drugs
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D. (PI)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse OAR Supplement (DA-11421-02S1)
Dates of Study: 2000-2002
This supplement grant to the study, "Pathways to High-Risk Drug Abuse Among Urban Youth" seeks to understand and document the social and cultural contexts of "club" or "designer" drug use, and sex risks associated with the influx of these new drugs among urban youth in Hartford, CT.
Link for more details

View findings from this project

Minority Supplement to Pathways to High-Risk Drug Abuse Among Urban Youth
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Jose Garcia, B.A. (PI), Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D. (Co-PI)
Grant: Minority Supplement from NIDA Office of Special Populations R01-DS11421
Dates of Study: 2000-2001
This one-year supplement to the study, "Pathways to High-Risk Drug Abuse Among Urban Youth" was designed to study the interaction between the informal and formal economy, and drug selling in Hartford, CT. It examines the ways that youth are drawn into the world of drug dealing, how that world is organized, its role in the lives of youth and their families, and the potential impact of drug selling on the transition from "soft" to "hard" drug use among youth and young adults.
Link for more details

View findings from this project

CONNECT 2000: Community-Based Substance Abuse and HIV/AIDS Outreach Program
Research Method: Intervention Research
Project Director: Merrill Singer, Ph.D. (HHC)
Grant: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 1 H79 TI12088
Partners: Hispanic Health Council, AIDS Project Hartford, Institute for Community Research, Latinos/as Contra SIDA, Urban League of Greater Hartford
Dates of Study: 1999-2002
This three-year project aims to bridge HIV/AIDS prevention education with substance abuse treatment and health services provision. The project - a collaboration between five agencies in Hartford, CT - is working with high risk, drug-using populations of men and women in the city.
Link for more details

Community Outreach Prevention Effort COPE III - Longitudinal Study of AIDS Risk Among Injection Drug Users
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Merrill Singer, Ph.D., HHC (PI),
Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D. (Co-PI)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA11359)
Partners: Hispanic Health Council
Dates of Study: 1998-2001
This three-year study focused on the individual and social context factors that impact AIDS prevention over time among out-of-treatment drug users and crack cocaine users. The project contacted and tracked former participants of Project COPE II for HIV risk reduction and behavior changes, assessing how individual, network and community factors affect HIV risk over the long-term.
Link for more details

Pathways to High-Risk Drug Abuse Among Urban Youth
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D. (PI), Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D. (Co-PI), Merrill Singer, Ph.D., HHC (Co-PI)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01-DS11421)
Partners: Hispanic Health Council, University of Massachusetts-Amherst,
Yale University
Dates of Study: 1997-2002
This four-year study aims to identify the critical factors responsible for the transition from "soft" or "gateway" drug use (monthly use of alcohol/marijuana/tobacco) to "hard" drug use (weekly heroin and/or cocaine), including injection drug use, among multiethnic inner city young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 in Hartford, CT. The study tests the hypothesis that social networks are more influential than personal vulnerability (social, familial and personal risk and protective factors) in promoting hard drug use and the transition to injecting. A key component explores the ethics of doing research with drug-using adolescents.
Link for more details

View findings from this project

Study of High-Risk Drug Use Settings for HIV Prevention
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D. (PI), Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D. (Co-PI), Merrill Singer, Ph.D., HHC (Co-PI)
Grant: National Institute on Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (#U01 DA07284, Project #3). Grantee - Yale University Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS
Partners: Hispanic Health Council, Yale University Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS
Dates of Study: 1997-2001
This three-year study, completed in 2001, identified and explored the characteristics of "high-risk sites" - locations in which individuals gather to inject and/or smoke illicit drugs and exchange sex for money or drugs. Descriptions of the personal networks of the people who frequent these high-risk sites, and measured receptivity of site "gatekeepers" to HIV prevention was used to determine the potential for a peer-led, site-based prevention intervention. This project is a joint ICR/Hispanic Health Council study, and was funded as one of four core projects composing the original Yale University Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA).
Link for more details

Intertwined Epidemics Among Puerto Rican Drug Users: Substance Abuse, Violence, and AIDS (SAVA)
Research Method: Basic Research
Principal Investigators: Merrill Singer, Ph.D., HHC (PI),
Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D. (Co-PI)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA10438); Lead grantee - Hispanic Health Council
Partners: Hispanic Health Council, Institute for Community Research
Dates of Study: 1997-2000
This three-year study explored at the intersection between substance abuse, violence and HIV risk in Hartford's Puerto Rican communities. The project, a collaboration between the Hispanic Health Council and the Institute for Community Research, examines factors that influence or impact the relationship among these three epidemics at the individual, network and neighborhood levels.
Link for more details

The Community Outreach Prevention Effort II: Project COPE II
Research Method: Basic Research/Intervention Research
Principal Investigators: Merrill Singer, Ph.D., HHC (PI)
Margaret R. Weeks, Ph.D. (Co-PI)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (#U01 DA07284)
Partners: Hispanic Health Council (grantee), The Hartford Dispensary, the Urban League of Greater Hartford, Latinos/as Contra SIDA, The Hartford Health Department
Dates of Study: 1992-1997
Project COPE II was a five-year HIV prevention study that built upon lessons learned in Project COPE I. The study targeted active, out-of-treatment injection drug and crack cocaine users in Hartford, CT, monitoring their drug use, HIV risks, and prevalence of HIV infection. The study also tested the comparative efficacy of culturally-targeted AIDS education against a standard intervention program. As part of the national, multi-site Cooperative Agreement for AIDS Community-based Outreach/Intervention Program, the project was a conducted by the six-organization Community Alliance for AIDS Prevention (CAAP), with the Hispanic Health Council as the lead grantee.
Link for more details

Project COPE: Preventing AIDS Among Injection Drug Users and their Sex Partners
Research Method: Basic Research and Intervention Research
Principal Investigators: Jean J. Schensul, Ph.D. (PI), Merrill Singer, Ph.D. (PI)
Grant: National Institute on Drug Abuse (#R18-DA05750)
Partners: Hispanic Health Council (HHC), The Urban League of Greater Hartford, Latinos/as Contra SIDA, The Hartford Dispensary, Hartford Health Department
Dates of Study: 1988-1992
This four-year study examined drug use patterns and AIDS risk behaviors among injection drug users and their sex partners in Hartford, CT, and evaluated the effectiveness of culturally-based prevention interventions against a standard intervention program. The study was part of the National AIDS Demonstration Research project, and one of 29 similar studies across the nation. It brought together five Hartford organizations into a community-based consortium of researchers and services providers that collaborated in future studies.
Link for more details