The Pittsburgh Study

The Pittsburgh Study (TPS) is a community-partnered, collective impact initiative focused on child and adolescent thriving and racial equity. Through shared decision making, centering of community voices, and inter-departmental participation across the University of Pittsburgh, we are uniquely positioned to address multiple levels of influences on child health and thriving. With an expected timeline of twenty years, this is the largest community-partnered, intervention study to follow children over time.

Changing the way research interacts with people is our value proposition to our community. TPS is convener of community partners. All scientific committees are co-led by non-university affiliated individuals and professional scientists, with over half of each committee made up of community members as citizen scientists. This research infrastructure serves as a catalyst and incubator for all departments within the University of Pittsburgh.

TPS moves science beyond inquiry to problem-solve together and co-create tangible solutions, delivering research reciprocity that is responsive to community priorities. TPS nurtures community engaged research and delivers substantial value through payment systems to compensate community partners with alacrity, shared metrics, shared database, community partner research ethics training, building community collaborations, aiding researchers with funding applications, and amplifying voices from the community and sharing the data and stories produced through that work. This inclusive process also seeks to increase community capacity.Through wholistic integration, TPS uses the entire production of discovery and scholarship to accelerate the translation of science from sharing the data to transforming society.

TPS lives at the intersection of research, learning, workforce development, and health services delivery. It aligns with the University of Pittsburgh’s strategic plan in its cohesive and comprehensive pursuit for the advancement of knowledge to serve the greater good of the region; specifically, to establish greater health and wellbeing among the youth in our society. This focus closely aligns the work of TPS with the tenets of the University's mission to serve the needs of Pennsylvania; To advance learning; To transfer knowledge and make available to local communities and public agencies the expertise of the University in ways that contribute to social, intellectual, and economic development in the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.

Many community organizations and partners are collaborating with TPS, including: