image of a Black trans femme with glasses and long pink hair using an iphone a smartphone. Logo is for LifeSkills Mobile

What is the LifeSkills Mobile Study?

As a participant in this study, you can help us test the LifeSkills Mobile apps which provide tools appropriate to your HIV status to help you take care of your health. Every 6 months you’ll be asked to do a survey and a test kit depending on your HIV status. If you enroll in the study, you will be compensated for your time, up to $225 over the next 12 to 18 months. All visits are completed remotely.

The study is being run by the University of California at Los Angeles, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Check Eligibility

  • The mission of the LifeSkills Mobile Study is to build knowledge and resilience in all areas of life amongst trans women and trans femmes around HIV.

  • We envision a world where trans women and trans femme folks are able to achieve their goals and live a happy and successful life.

  • The LifeSkills Mobile Study recognizes the complexity and wholeness of trans people’s lives. We believe that trans women and trans femmes know best what each other need to succeed in society. Trans people’s lives must be defined by their dreams and goals, and not by the discrimination and struggles they face. Our web apps promote sexual health and knowledge around HIV. They are based on an in-person peer mentorship and coaching program by trans women and trans femmes for trans women and trans femmes which builds self-confidence and self-worth.

    Our apps build skills to set healthy boundaries while engaging in dating, relationships, sex, and sex work. They also build skills to navigate healthcare settings. Ultimately our goal is to help trans women and trans femmes achieve their goals in life, and not let HIV be a barrier to happiness and success.

  • LifeSkills Mobile is based off of a successful in-person program started in Chicago in 2012 called Project LifeSkills. Over the course of seven years, more than 300 trans women and femmes took part in the 3-week-long Project LifeSkills program. The success of the program led it to be designated a best practice model for HIV prevention amongst trans women and femmes by the Centers for Disease Control [CDC]. Since 2020 we’ve been working to go a step further and adapt Project LifeSkills to web app platforms to reach more people including those who can’t access an in-person program.

    1. By and for our community: LifeSkills Mobile and LifeSkills Mobile+ are developed by trans people, for trans people.

    2. Trans people are whole people: Each person is full of history and life experience.

    3. Individuality: HIV prevention and care doesn’t look the same for everyone

    4. Grounded in Social Reality: Our work must aim to address harms of societal oppression and stigma

    5. Bodily Autonomy: Everyone should be able to make decisions about their bodies without judgment or coercion

    6. Liberation and Freedom: Everyone should have the freedom to achieve their life goals, free from discrimination

    7. Pride and Self-love: We must celebrate trans joy and trans people’s value to society

    8. Sex Worker positive: Sex work is work. We come from a harm reduction approach which focuses on realistic ways to keep yourself as safe as possible including while engaging in sex work