Rosa Gonzalez-Guarda was recently awarded a Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation's Hillman Emergent Innovation grant for her proposal entitled "A smartphone application to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) among young adult Latino immigrants." The project was awarded $50,000 for the one-year project period to begin Dec. 1, 2017.

The long-term goal is to develop and disseminate culturally-tailored and effective strategies to prevent Intimate Partner Violence (IPV—physical, sexual, or psychological violence between current or former romantic partners) among Latinos. The team has extensive experience in using community-engaged strategies to develop IPV interventions targeting Latinos.9-13 This proposed project will extend that work by developing a smartphone application—Culturaciόn: Cultura y Relaciones Intimás (Culture and Intimate Relationships)—that addresses the most influential risks and protective factors associated with IPV among Latinos: previous trauma, acculturation stress, cultural norms, partner communication, and social support.9,10 Culturaciόn is also designed to link Latinos to local providers with expertise in culturally-specific and trauma-informed services.

Addressing IPV prevention for Latinos this way is promising given that they are the ethnic group most likely to use smartphones to access health information, but the least likely to access formal health services.14,15 More specifically, we aim to: 1. Develop a smartphone application based on input from community partners who have expertise on culturally-specific services. The app will address the risk and protective factors associated with IPV among young adult Latino immigrants (Phase 1). 2. Evaluate the usability and preliminary impact of the smartphone application on risk and protective factors for IPV among Latino immigrants (i.e., traumatic symptoms, acculturation stress, cultural norms, partner communication, and social support) and IPV victimization and perpetration (Phases 2 & 3).

The team consists of nurse researchers with expertise in IPV, the National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities, a national network of Latino IPV service providers, and local community-based organizations serving Latinos in Durham, NC. During Phase 1, diverse stakeholders will meet in four workshops to design the application. A programmer will align community input, culturally-tailored approaches, and evidence-based practices to develop Culturaciόn. During Phase 2, 10 interviews will be conducted with young adult immigrant Latinos to assess the acceptability and usability of the application using the Concurrent Talk Aloud Protocol.16,17

This protocol encourages users to share their impressions of the smartphone application as they use it. Revisions will be made based on their recommendations. In Phase 3, a pre/post-test design using standardized and validated measures will be used to evaluate the impact of Culturaciόn. Data from 50 young adult Latino immigrant users will be collected at baseline and three months after initiating use.

 Latino immigrants in the United States are disproportionately affected by IPV, defined as physical, sexual, or psychological violence between current or former romantic partners. The app, Culturaciόn: Cultura y Relaciones Intimás (Culture and Intimate Relationships), addresses the risks and protective factors for IPV among Latino immigrants between the ages of 18 and 29, including adverse childhood experiences, acculturation stress, cultural norms influencing relationship power and communication, fewer help-seeking behaviors, and lack of access to culturally-specific health services. Participants will also learn healthy and practical ways to manage stressors in their intimate relationships. A key partner will be the National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families at Casa de Esperanza. 

The Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation recently announced $1.6 million in new grants to nursing-driven innovation for vulnerable populations. To accelerate the development and scale of forward thinking nursing-driven models of care, the Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation has added two new programs to its portfolio of Innovation grants and will award more than $1.6 million in funding to seven projects to improve the health of vulnerable populations. The new programs—the Hillman Emergent Innovation Program and the Hillman Innovation Dissemination Program—will bookend the Foundation’s flagship Hillman Innovations in Care Program to create a pipeline for innovation from pilots and prototypes to broad-based implementation. The 2017 awards will serve diverse populations and focus on opioid addiction, maternal mental health, advance care planning, traumatic injury rehabilitation, intimate partner violence, adolescent sexual health, and aging in place. To learn more, please visit www.rahf.org/blog/view/Hillman-Foundation-Announces-2017-Innovation-Grants or bit.ly/RAHFgrants2017.