Community Research Lab
Community Research Lab is an initiative to promote civic engagement in public health and to advance participatory research methods. Through our Lab, community leaders are coming together to identify issues of importance to them and to design and lead projects in four areas of impact. We seek to empower more people with lived experience to contribute to policy, research, and service systems.
Peer SUpport CURRICULUM and mutual aid network
What if no one had to navigate life’s hardest transitions alone?
People's Health Solutions is forming a collective of Long Beach and Los Angeles community members to co-design a peer support curriculum and mutual aid network for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV).
The modular curriculum will draw on what research tells us works across effective peer support programs, while also addressing the unique and immediate needs of people experiencing IPV. Although the curriculum is centered around IPV, the modules are designed to be adaptable to other major turning points. These might include navigating a serious medical diagnosis, a mental health crisis, gender transition, or financial loss.
We believe healthy communities are built not only through services, but through relationships: by equipping people to support one another during life's turning points. We're starting with survivors of IPV because the need is urgent, but our vision reaches far beyond a single issue.
Ultimately, this project is a means to reduce health disparities by strengthening relationships with our neighbors and reducing the social isolation that so often accompanies major life transitions.
If you're passionate about community safety, consider joining us!
We are looking for survivors, advocates, organizers, students, social workers, health practitioners, engineers, designers, researchers, and anyone who believes communities become healthier when we get to know our neighbors and support one another through change.
Together, we'll spend seven months designing and testing prototypes with light-touch support from our partner, The Difference Engine. We'll then present our work at Arizona State University's BUILD conference in March 2027, where we will make a pitch together for a local pilot.
Participants can help brainstorm ideas, share lived or professional expertise, conduct basic research, build training modules and a digital platform, and test early prototypes in a collaborative design process.
If you'd like to be part of this effort, we'd love to hear from you.
Please reach out and tell us a little about yourself. This is an opportunity to shape the project from the ground up and co-create something that belongs to the community we build together. Our long-term vision is simple: an advocate at every turning point. A turning point is a time when life can feel turbulent. It can also mark the beginning of something new. Peer advocates don’t simply help — they provide the support all people deserve to stand in their power while navigating change.
