Transtria has had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects with partners in local, state and national settings. Please click on one of the logos above to learn more about the active projects in our portfolio.

MEN ON THE MOVE

Overview: This community-based participatory project will assess the current educational and economic opportunities available for African American men in Pemiscot County and support new opportunities for educational and economic growth in order to directly and indirectly improve health and well-being. Through a historical relationship between Saint Louis University Prevention Research Center and the Pemiscot County Heart Health Coalition, the coalition identified lack of jobs and educational opportunities as the most critical issues affecting the health and well-being of their community.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to:

• Develop a plan to improve access to educational and economic opportunities
• Develop and evaluate an enhanced general educational development (GED) course
• Create an economic development plan to stimulate economic growth and job creation in Pemiscot County

Partners:

Saint Louis University Prevention Research Center,
Pemiscot County Heart Health Coalition,
Pemiscot County Community Coalition and many other local government and non-profit agencies

Our Role: Transtria is responsible for providing technical assistance with regard to

• Development, training, implementation and management of a database system
• Cognitive Response Testing (CRT) training
• Qualitative interview training
• Interviews with community organizations
• Research, planning and technical assistance with implementation of GED and Job Readiness programs
• Research and planning for an economic development plan

Population: African American men between the ages of 18 and 45 living in a rural, economically depressed area of southeast Missouri (Pemiscot County)

TEN TOE EXPRESS

Overview: Citizens for Modern Transit, a St. Louis transit advocacy group, was funded to begin a new initiative in St. Louis, the Ten Toe Express program. The Ten Toe Express program focuses on increasing the number of older adults in the St. Louis community who link walking with public transit use resulting in a healthier, more active lifestyle.  In collaboration with Transtria L.L.C., Citizens for Modern Transit implemented the Ten Toe Express program consisting of two main components: 1) distribution of walking kits, and 2) creation of weekly walking groups. The walking kits consist of a digital pedometer, walking and eating logs, walking tour maps of different destinations throughout the St. Louis area, a coupon book to increase access to opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating, and educational materials to encourage participants to walk more and eat healthier. The walking groups serve to increase levels of physical activity, increase familiarity with public transit, and to build supportive networks for being physically active.

Purpose: The main goals of the Ten Toe Express project are to:

• Increase the proportion of older adults who meet recommendations for physical activity and balanced eating patterns through educational and promotional intervention activities targeting increased walking for transportation and recreation as well as increased selection and purchasing of nutritious foods.
• Increase perceived community access to opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating.
• Strengthen collaborative efforts to implement local public policies that promote physical activity and healthy eating through dissemination of walking campaign findings.

Partners:

Citizens for Modern Transit,
Missouri Foundation for Health,
OASIS

Our Role:

• Research, planning, and technical assistance with grant writing
• Develop nutrition and physical activity education materials
• Participate in recruitment efforts
• Develop online evaluation materials (i.e. pre/post surveys, walking and eating logs)
• Participate in intervention activities (e.g., walk leader trainings, kick-off events)
• Evaluate the success of the program (e.g., collect, analyze, and disseminate project data)

Population: The Ten Toe Express program targets older adults (aged 55 and older) throughout the St. Louis community.

EBIPS

Overview: EBIPS (Evidence-Based Intervention Planning System) is an interactive web-based system designed to provide a 7-step guide for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based interventions. The N-O-T (Not On Tobacco) program is the first intervention provided on this site. In addition, the EBIPS website contains information, links, and resources that will allow public health practitioners and communities to effectively replicate intervention and evaluation activities within their own settings and populations.

Purpose: The main goals of the EBIPS project are to:

• Summarize evidence and resources for intervention planning and evaluation.
• Enhance the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of evidence-based interventions to improve population health.

Partners:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Prevention Research Centers (CDC PRC),
Saint Louis University School of Public Health,
West Virginia University Health Sciences Center,
American Lung Association,
Innovative Graphic Services

Our Role:

• Review and summarize evidence-based interventions as well as associated tools, information, and resources
• Gather experiential evidence from those implementing interventions
• Design and develop website content, format, layout, and links to other sites

Population: EBIPS is designed primarily for public health practitioners and community or organization leaders who are interested in planning an intervention for their community. The EBIPS website is available to all interested users.

MICA

Overview: Intervention MICA (Missouri Information for Community Assessment) is an interactive, evidence-based intervention planning website that guides users through a process of creating partnerships, performing a needs assessment, assessing readiness, building capacity, implementing an intervention, designing an evaluation and maintaining momentum. Users are provided with information and tools needed to be able to plan and develop their own intervention or use resources available by others to implement an existing intervention. Eight intervention topics (i.e., physical activity, tobacco, asthma, nutrition, diabetes, oral health, motor vehicle injuries, injuries from falls) are organized by six main intervention strategies (i.e., Campaigns & Promotions, Individual Information Exchange, Group Education Sessions, Supportive Relationships, Provider Education Systems, Environments & Policies).

Purpose: The main goals of Intervention MICA are to:

• Increase the awareness of and importance of using evidence-based interventions to address health conditions
• Increase the capacity of local health practitioners to implement evidence-based interventions
• Improve the ability of public health practitioners to impact health outcomes

Partners: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services,
Missouri Foundation for Health

Our Role:

• Research of evidence-based interventions
• Abstraction of research- and practice-based evidence criteria
• Identification of online tools and resources
• Translation of evidence-based intervention planning information into web pages

Population: Although the MICA tools are primarily geared toward the state of Missouri, Intervention MICA transcends Missouri-based data and provides information to public health practitioners, researchers, government agencies, funders and other audiences at the national level.

W.E.L.L.

Overview: The W.E.L.L. (Walk. Eat. Learn. Live.) program is a three-pronged effort to improve health and reduce the rates of obesity. This intervention emphasizes individual-level education, interpersonal relationships, and community-level involvement. Clients of Feed My People, the largest food pantry in the St. Louis metropolitan area, will learn how to choose healthy alternatives when they purchase, prepare, and serve foods through education sessions, cooking classes, and taste tests. Recipients will also participate in walking groups to increase levels of physical activity and build supportive networks. An additional component of the W.E.L.L. project provides Feed My People donors and the greater St. Louis community with information about the importance of making healthy food donations to food pantries.

Purpose: The main goals of the W.E.L.L. project are to:

• Enhance nutrition and physical activity knowledge and skills of people who receive assistance from Feed My People in order to help them prepare and consume food in healthier ways and incorporate activity into their daily routines.  
• Increase access to healthy foods donated to Feed My People food pantries and access to places to be physically active.

Partners:

Feed My People
Missouri Foundation for Health,
Operation Food Search

Our Role:

• Research, planning, and technical assistance with grant writing
• Development of nutrition and physical activity education materials
• Participation in client and volunteer recruitment efforts
• Participation in intervention activities (e.g., educational seminars, cooking classes)
• Collection, evaluation, analysis, and dissemination of project data

Population: Feed My People’s clientele is predominantly Caucasian and live at or below the poverty level. The W.E.L.L. program is offered to all clients, volunteers, and staff at both the Lemay and High Ridge locations.

NLM

Overview: Transtria was funded through the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to conduct evaluation and dissemination activities of the Intervention MICA system. Partners from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Transtria L.L.C. and Saint Louis University School of Public Health designed Intervention MICA to increase access to intervention planning information at the local level. Intervention MICA provides users with an increased understanding of evidence-based public health processes as well as specific recommendations for effective interventions in a variety of settings and populations. The first stage of evaluation activities included pilot tests and pre-tests of the Intervention MICA system with representatives of the intended audience (e.g., practitioners, students and researchers in public health).  Using direct observation methods and surveys, feedback was collected regarding format, content, navigation, usability, and applicability. The second stage of evaluation activities consisted of the development of materials and methods to train local community-based organizations to use Intervention MICA within their partnerships. Quantitative and qualitative feedback was collected regarding the content, function, design and navigation of the system as well as the applicability for community-based organizations to their intervention planning process. Feedback from these training sessions will not only be used to create recommendations for improvements to the Intervention MICA system, but will also be used to improve training materials and methods. Training materials will be disseminated to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services as well as other public health practioners.

Purpose: The main goals of the National Library of Medicine project are to:

• Evaluate the utility, usability, and ease of navigation of the Intervention MICA system
• Evaluate the design, format, and content of the Intervention MICA system
• Create train-the-trainer materials for the Missouri Department of Senior Services and other public health practioners to conduct their own Intervention MICA trainings with community-based organizations
• Gather recommendations for improvements and changes to the Intervention MICA system
• Provide recommendations to the Missouri Department  of Health and Senior Services for potential modifications

Partners:

National Library of Medicine,
Saint Louis University School of Public Health,
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

Our Role:

• Development of evaluation materials and methods
• Coordination of pilot and pre-tests
• Development of Intervention MICA training materials and methods
• Coordination and delivery of Intervention MICA training sessions
• Collection, evaluation, analysis, and dissemination of findings
• Development and dissemination of recommendations for modifications to the Intervention MICA system

Active Living by Design

Overview:  The Active Living by Design (ALbD) project is an evaluation of a national initiative that establishes innovative approaches to increase physical activity through community design, public policies and communications strategies.  The evaluation of grantees, ALbD and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation staff and other stakeholders includes assessing the environmental impacts of physical projects and related policy changes; determining the influence of these interventions on physical activity behaviors; documenting the range of interventions implemented across the communities and their associated intended and unintended accomplishments; and identifying strengths and challenges in the process of planning, developing and implementing the interventions.  The evaluation will also provide recommendations for building community design initiatives to increase physical activity, including relevant policy and environment changes as well as promotional and programmatic activities. 

Purpose: The main goals of the ALbD project are to:

• Assess the impact of active living interventions on environments related to physical activity.
• Provide evidence of the impact of “start-up” resources on the capacity of communities to create change in support of active living.
• Increase understanding of community responses to comprehensive intervention approaches involving policy, environment, programmatic, and promotions strategies.
• Identify strengths and challenges encountered by communities in the planning, development, and implementation of active living interventions. 

Partners:

Active Living by Design,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
Saint Louis University School of Public Health

Our Role:

• Gather evidence of intervention planning, development, and implementation activities
• Review and summarize evidence of intervention activities and their accomplishments
• Develop and disseminate summary reports of findings

Population: The ALbD project evaluates 25 diverse communities across the United States, including those with large racial/ethnic minority, child and older adult populations; communities in urban, suburban and rural settings; and low-resource and high-resource communities.  Recommendations for building community design initiatives to increase physical activity will focus primarily on environments for children and relatively disadvantaged populations. 

SDOH

Overview: The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) project is designed to improve practical understanding about how to develop, implement, and evaluate interventions; encourage organizational change; and promote policy initiatives that target social determinants of health contributing to health inequities by race/ethnicity, income, social class, and other related factors. In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sponsored a forum to highlight activities and interventions that address social determinants of health to reduce health disparities. A workbook was designed and developed for practitioners, Promoting Health Equity: A Resource to Help Communities Address Social Determinants of Health. In addition, an interactive training workshop is under development for CDC staff and program-affiliated community partners working on projects related to social determinants of health (e.g., REACH, PRCs).

Purpose: The main goals of the SDOH project are to:

• Support increased efforts by the CDC and its program-affiliated community partners to incorporate social determinants into public health assessment, intervention and evaluation efforts.
• Increase understanding about how to choose the factors on which to intervene, how to incorporate new partners into social determinants work, and how the public health community can influence social policies to reduce health disparities.
• Present ideas from communities participating in the forum and provide resources (e.g., surveillance systems, websites, journal articles, books).

Partners:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Saint Louis University School of Public Health,
Innovative Graphic Services

Our Role:

• Research and review of social determinants work
• Develop workbook design, content, format, and resources
• Coordinate development and review of workbook
• Design training and develop training manual
• Evaluate workbook and training

Population: The workbook and training have the potential to reach a wide variety of public health practitioners and community partners through dissemination efforts in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

AJPM

Overview: The American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) Special Journal Issue project aims to translate and disseminate the community-based interventions developed as part of the Active Living by Design (ALbD) initiative. The Active Living Best Practices special issue will be developed and edited in 2008-2009 and the Evaluation of Active Living by Design special issue will be developed and edited in 2009-2010.  The practice-based special issue will describe community partnerships representing a range of lead agencies (e.g. planning departments, community development agencies) with emphasis on increasing physical activity in special populations (e.g. African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, older adults, children, employees).  It will provide examples of the process of planning and implementing comprehensive approaches to increase community levels of physical activity, including how to engage partners, secure resources, increase community participation, design policy and environment interventions, increase political or community support, address challenges or minimize barriers, and keep the momentum going over time.  The evaluation special issue will describe several coordinated approaches currently funded to assess the impact of the 25 community partnerships on intermediate outcomes (e.g., policy or environmental changes, funds leveraged) as well as the effect of community partnerships on physical activity behavior.

Purpose:
The main goals of the AJPM project are to:

• To develop and edit an ALbD special issue with an emphasis on best practices learned from the 25 ALbD community partnerships.
• To disseminate examples of the process of planning and implementing community design approaches to create support for and minimize barriers to physical activity.

Partners:
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Active Living by Design Initiative
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Health Policy Consulting Group

Our Role:

• Develop and distribute technical assistance materials, including a manuscript template, a timeline and guidelines for writing and reviewing the manuscript.
• Offer technical assistance to the participating community writing teams during the writing and revision period.
• Promote regular contact between the community partnerships and Transtria.
• Facilitate communications between the community partnerships and representatives of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Population: Practitioners and researchers working in the fields of public health, urban planning, transportation, parks and recreation, public policy, and communications can benefit from an increased understanding of planning and implementation activities, resources and challenges.

R25E

Overview:
The staff at the Prevention Research Center at Washington University Public Health Institute received funding to train public health practitioners on methods of preventing obesity and cancer in their communities. As part of this grant, they are exploring options for increasing the reach of their Evidence Based Public Health course, possibly through the use of web-based technology. 
Transtria is assisting the Prevention Research Center by completing a literature review on developing web-based training courses.  Information and recommendations gathered from this review will guide the development of an online Evidence Based Public Health training course for the continuing education of health professionals and practitioners. 
Purpose: The main goals of the R25E project are to:

• Increase the proportion of public health practitioners in the field receiving the Evidence Based Public Health course
• Reduce the prevalence of obesity and cancer

Partners:
The Prevention Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis
Our Role:

• Conducting a comprehensive literature review focused on developing web-based training websites
• Conducting an online search identifying examples of model web-based training websites
• Developing a report of findings and recommendations to present to the Prevention Research Center

Population: Public health practitioners at local or state health departments

EPNP

Overview: The Review of Environmental and Policy Interventions for Childhood Obesity Prevention (EPNP) program is an effort to reduce rates of childhood obesity in lower income and minority populations.  Transtria is conducting a review of the research and practice-based literature to identify evidence-based environmental and policy change interventions that are most likely to be effective in halting the rise of childhood obesity.  This project includes developing a process and framework for ongoing reviews, identifying evidence-based, effective, promising, and emerging strategies, and developing a method for disseminating this information to researchers, practitioners, and funders.  Transtria will use a collaborative approach for the review process that will involve experts in environmental and policy interventions for nutrition and physical activity. 

Purpose: The main objectives of the EPNP project are:
1) To create a systematic annual review process (including an evidence hierarchy) to classify environmental and policy interventions for childhood obesity prevention into levels of evidence (e.g., scientific, peer review, promising practice)

2) To identify environmental and policy interventions in nutrition and physical activity with applicability in children aged 3-18 emerging from existing evidence-based review processes (e.g., Community Guide, review articles)

3) To review and summarize emerging evidence-based environmental and policy interventions in nutrition and physical activity with applicability in children aged 3-18 with respect to a range of research- and practice-based levels of evidence.

Partners: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Washington University Public Health Institute

Our Role:

• Development of a systematic annual review process
• Identification of research and practice-based environmental and policy interventions in nutrition and physical activity
• Abstraction and review of environmental and policy interventions
• Summarization and dissemination of findings to partners and key individuals in the field of public health

Population: Minority and lower-income children ages 3-18

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities

Overview: Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities (HKHC), funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project, is a national program that focuses on healthy eating and active living policy and environmental changes to support healthier communities for children and families across the United States. HKHC places special emphasis on reaching children who are at highest risk for obesity on the basis of race/ethnicity, income and/or geographic location. Transtria is planning and piloting evaluation processes, methods and measures to assess opportunities for physical activity and access to affordable healthy foods for children and families. These processes, evaluation methods and measures will be piloted with 9 leading sites that received HKHC funding in December 2008; and will be used to evaluate an additional 60 community sites that will receive funding in December 2009.

Purpose: The main goals of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities project are:

• To create a toolkit of assessment and evaluation resources based on valid and reliable measures of physical activity, nutrition, environments and policies
• To assist in the redevelopment of the Progress Reporting System (PRS) for grantees, project officers and evaluators
• To develop a plan and protocol for technical assistance and evaluation of the nine HKHC leading sites
• To train staff from the National Program Office, Transtria and Washington University Institute for Public Health on the revised PRS and toolkit of assessment and evaluation resources and replicate this training with the nine leading sites
• To develop a plan and protocol for technical assistance to the 60 grantees, based on findings the leading sites

Partners:

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities
Active Living By Design
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Washington University Institute for Public Health

Our Role:

• To assist in updating and revising the Progress Reporting System (PRS)
• To identify a range of assessment and evaluation data sources, tools, measures and methods to recommend to grantee communities
• To develop a training manual to support use of the PRS and the toolkit
• To conduct content analysis of the grant proposals for the nine leading sites
• To provide a plan for technical assistance and evaluation of all 69 HKHC communities

Population: HKHC focuses on children and families who are at high risk for obesity in diverse communities throughout the United States.