History of the Health Equity Sociobehavioral Science Core

In 2016, the Disparities Core was established through funding provided by the California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP) as part of the CHRP HIV Disparities Initiative Program. CHRP funded three grants totaling $9 million over four years to establish Disparities Cores and support innovative projects at UC Centers for AIDS Research in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. The Centers collaborated with community groups to find, test and treat hidden and high-risk populations in respective geographic regions of California.

The overall goals of the CHRP HIV Disparities Initiative were: 

1. To encourage collaboration between CFARs, local government organizations and community based organizations in evaluating and decreasing disparities in HIV care and treatment;
2. To encourage collaboration across the three California-based CFARs in evaluating and decreasing disparities in HIV care and treatment;
3. To identify, implement and evaluate innovative interventions aimed at decreasing disparities in HIV care and treatment in California

The Disparities Core supported two scientific projects funded by the California HIV/AIDS Research Program. These intervention projects were led by academic-community collaborative partnerships and designed to improve outcomes along the HIV care continuum for African Americans and women in San Diego County. For more information, please visit the CHRP Disparities Research website.

In 2021, after strategic planning with a Disparities Core committee consisting of sociobehavioral HIV prevention and treatment scientists across the SD CFAR member institutions, the Core was renamed the "Health Equity Sociobehavioral Science Core." We believe the name reflects the need to depart from a negative, deficits-based framing towards a more positive, strengths-based framing around the need for equality and equity in HIV prevention and treatment. The new name also highlights the critical role that sociobehavioral science plays in achieving health equity and ultimately, in ending the HIV epidemic.