DP24-004, PRC CORE: SDSU Prevention Research Center

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The overarching goals of the proposed Taking on the Heat: Community Action to Adapt an Extreme Heat Intervention San Diego State University/ San Diego State University-Imperial Valley Prevention Research Center (PRC) is to reduce the disparate health impacts of extreme heat in disproportionately impacted populations. The PRC will be organized into a PRC Center Component (PRC-CC), a PRC Core Research Project Component (PRC-RP) and a PRC Network Component (PRC-N). The PRC-CC’s primary aim will be to build, leverage, and support the necessary partnerships and infrastructure to expand and sustain institutional and community capacity to conduct the PRC-RP and additional applied prevention and dissemination and implementation research. The PRC-RP will focus on the chronic disease prevention priority category of reducing UV overexposure and mitigating the effects of extreme heat. We will address the science gap of how communities interested in using evidence-based interventions (EBI) for mitigating the health effects of extreme heat can improve uptake through implementation science methods. Using high-quality public health Community-Based Participatory Research and implementation science methods, we will adopt and implement the Phoenix Heat Action Planning Guide Heat Action Planning Guide for Neighborhoods of Greater Phoenix from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Community Actions Database in the historically disinvested agricultural setting of Imperial Valley, CA. The Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment (EPIS) framework and community-informed participatory planning process called Implementation Mapping will drive the adaptation and implementation of the EBI through workshops, focus groups, capacity training, and home and school visits to communities facing heat inequities. The PRC-N will participate in the PRC Network to leverage the expertise of the network members to inform individual core research project and center activities and advance the network’s collective impact in public health prevention research, policy, and practice.