A non-binary trans woman posing in a park on a sunny day

What is the LifeSkills Mobile Study?

As a participant in this study, you can help us test the LifeSkills Mobile app, an app to promote sexual health that was created by a group of young trans women for other trans women and trans femme people. If you’re enrolled, you will do a home HIV test and a survey every six months for up to two and a half years, depending on when you start the study. All visits are completed remotely. Participants can receive up to $250 for their time.

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 Lifeskills Mobile is to build knowledge and resilience in all areas of life amongst trans women and trans femmes to prevent 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.

  • LifeSkills Mobile is an HIV prevention web app developed by and for trans women and trans femmes that 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 virtual HIV prevention web app is 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.

    Effective HIV prevention means building skills to set healthy boundaries while engaging in dating, relationships, sex, and sex work. It also means building skills to navigate healthcare settings. Ultimately our goal is to help trans women and trans femmes to 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 a web app platform to reach more people including those who can’t access an in-person program.

    1. By and for our community: Our intervention is 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 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