Research in HIV Intervention: Skills for the Community (RHISC)

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Overview    Goals    Curriculum    RHISC Faculty    Fellows    Calendar

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Overview

Research in HIV Intervention: Skills for the Community (RHISC) is a four-year fellowship program, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) as a “Minority Researcher Skills in Youth, Community, Family and HIV” R25 training grant, which will run until Summer 2012. Our goal is to grow and to educate minority HIV researchers in the New York City (NYC) metropolitan area who have a deep understanding of the issues in their own cultures and communities that may facilitate or provide barriers to effective HIV intervention. RHISC consists of three annual 6-week research career and skill development Summer Institutes, taught by highly experienced researchers in the field, and four years of year-round mentoring. Summer Institute 2009 is scheduled from July 13, 2009 through August 20, 2009; dates for the Summer Institutes in 2010 and 2011 are TBA, but we expect them to be approximately the same.

RHISC Fellows consist of 8 minority early career academic faculty and advanced degree professional health and service providers from the greater NYC metropolitan area. Fellows entered the program with clearly-defined research objectives and career goals, along with the support of an individual from their home institution serving as their mentor. During Summer Institute Year 1, Fellows are expected to refine a 2-3 page concept paper outlining their proposal for pilot research during enrollment in RHISC. In addtion to their home institution mentor, each Fellow also will develop a relationship with a RHISC Mentoring Faculty member who will serve as their RHISC faculty mentor for the duration of the program.

Note: RHISC is not accepting new applications for fellowships.

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Goals

During RHISC, all Fellows will:

• Strengthen relationships with a RHISC faculty mentor and a home institution mentor two weeks into Summer Institute Year 1;
• Revise concept papers into pilot proposals meriting award of RHISC pilot project funds by three months following Summer Institute Year 1;
• Begin executing pilot projects as part of a greater career and research career roadmap by the beginning of Summer Institute Year 2;
• Advance pilot projects to the degree necessary to achieve entrance into presentation-production, publication-production, and grant application phases by the beginning of Summer Institute Year 3; and
• Submit 1 manuscript for a peer-reviewed journal and/or deliver 2 professional presentations, as well as make significant progress on a federally-funded career award or research application, by the end of Year 4.

It is our expectation that within 2 years of completing RHISC, a majority of Fellows will have achieved one or more of the following:

• Authorship of 1-2 relevant peer-reviewed research publications or presentations per year;
• Documentation of adoption/dissemination of an evidence-based HIV intervention for an appropriate target community, either as part of a research or service project or evolving from evidence accruing from the Fellow’s work;
• Submission of 1-2 applications for career or research awards;
• Receipt of career advancement awards (e.g., K-series, other fellowships/ traineeships);
• Receipt of awards for relevant research projects, either internal or external to their then-current home institutions; and
• Educational/job placements likely to further foster youth, community and family HIV research.

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Curriculum

RHISC will be structured according to the following outline. Applicants accepted into the program will receive more detailed syllabi:

• Spring 2009: Individual meetings with Fellows to plan Summer 2009 activities.
• Summer Institute 1 (2009): Concentration on theory, method, content, ethics and sharpening pilot research plans; emerging issues relating to youth, communities, families and HIV.
• Fall 2009: Award of pilot funds; check-ins with Fellows and mentors.
• Spring 2010: Fellow, home institution mentor, Institute faculty meeting— concentration on pilot startup and early implementation; check-ins with Fellows and mentors.
• Summer Institute 2 (2010): Implementation quality, field issues, measurement, analysis; mental health concerns; research recruitment and retention; mock IRB; attendance at the NIMH Annual International Research Conference on the Role of Families in Preventing and Adapting to HIV (ROF); attendance at or webcast of the International AIDS Conference.
• Fall 2010: Check-ins with Fellows and mentors.
• Spring 2011: Fellow, home institution mentor, Institute faculty meeting—pilot progress; check-ins with Fellows and mentors.
• Summer Institute 3 (2011): Pilot completion steps; anticipating policy implications of research results; communicating research results to multiple audiences; publication; grants, research career plans; ROF Conference.
• Fall 2011: Check-ins with Fellows and mentors.
• Spring 2012: Fellow, home institution mentor, Institute faculty meeting—next steps, research career plan execution; check-ins with Fellows and mentors.
• Summer 2012: Check-ins with Fellows and mentors; research career plan execution; ROF Conference reunion.

Institute activities will be sequenced to build research skills, as well as to anticipate and to address common research pitfalls. Activities will occur Monday–Thursday from 9:30am–4:30pm; mini-courses will be held each morning, followed by afternoon ad hoc mentoring or free time for other research-related needs. Fridays will be designated for independent work or for ad hoc mentoring/partnering.

Courses will cover a variety of topics, including scientific and methodological aspects of HIV-related research; youth-, community- and family-based approaches to reducing HIV; effective community outreach; reaching hidden communities; ethics; advanced grant writing; budget development; designing grounded/culturally sensitive interventions; program planning; statistical methods for nested research designs; financial tracking; variance reporting; communicating to a broad range of audiences; preparing manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed publications; and public policy implications of research.

Additional skills to be developed include:

• Reinforcing auto-criticism by taking the viewpoint of potential reviewers, clients and eventual service/policy adapters/adopters during “science in a fishbowl” (i.e., presentation of project, its anticipated difficulties, review, and revision during and after the “fishbowl”).
• Integrating, rather than tacking on, human subjects issues.
• Understanding that grant-writing and budgeting processes serve, rather than lead, scientific aims.
• Expanding Fellows’ concept of available funding mechanisms and their intent.
• Addressing innovation and approach by understanding emerging issues, existing programs/research, needed programs/research, and the importance of harmony between needs, aims, underlying theories, methods, measures, and analytic strategy.
• Anticipating and addressing common problems (recruitment, retention, acceptability) through proven field techniques.
• Using business management techniques to assure quality.

RHISC Fellows

RHISC Fellows' bios are available here.

Calendar

Please refer to our Summer Institue Calendar for more information on summer sessions and other important events.

Contact

For more information about RHISC, please contact Joanne O’Day at (212) 481-4075 or joday@hunter.cuny.edu. The RHISC Fellowship is closed to new applicants.

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RHISC is funded by NIMH R25 training grant, "Minority Researcher Skills in Youth, Community, Family and HIV," and is hosted exclusively at the Hunter College Center for Community and Urban Health, City University of New York. All materials © 2009, Hunter College Center for Community and Urban Health.

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