Current Initiatives

#757Breastfeeds is a group of breastfeeding families and professional stakeholders on a mission to create a human milk feeding friendly community in Hampton Roads through collaboration, education, and advocacy.

This initiative is focused on advancing breastfeeding equity by improving hospital lactation policy and practices, developing a community resource directory, training health professionals and advocates, and moving towards normalization of breastfeeding through community events and engagement.

Bright Views is an engaging, holistic social-emotional learning curriculum for preschool-aged children.

Through Bright Views, children develop a strengthened sense of self, learn to identify and manage emotions, build communication skills, and explore concepts of diversity and belonging.

An Advisory Team of health researchers, early childhood professionals, and parents guide the Bright Views program. Join the team by becoming a CINCH partner.

This project is a national study that will explore the intersections of a variety of factors on teen use, parent experiences, resources, state and local policy and teen mental health, as well as impacts on school attendance and academic performance.  Ultimately, we hope to use information learned to create new, better resources, interventions and supports for parents, teens and schools.

The project first phase (parent survey) is launched.  The phase 1 survey is approved as a research study by the EVMS IRB.

This program works with families on a 6-12 week program to improve family decision making and health behaviors related to food and activity. The program provides weekly learning modules designed to take families through the topic and activities to develop a small “little step” goal to move towards family culture change for healthy activity and eating behaviors.

Families participate in a once weekly follow up to provide feedback to aid program development. The program is approved as a community CQI project by the EVMS IRB.

Please contact CINCH@evms.edu for referrals.

CINCH oversees the development and revision of the Virginia Pediatric Asthma Action Plan through convening state and local stakeholders in the Virginia Asthma Action Plan Expert Group.

The Plan is distributed through collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education and the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other stakeholders.

Click here to join CINCH’s email group for asthma-related information or email CINCH@evms.edu for questions or membership on the Expert Group.

Visit our Resources for Health Professionals & Advocates to view a pdf version of our Virginia Pediatric Asthma Action Plan.

There is a need to better understand the factors that are impacting both attendance as well as experiences among those patients that do attend postpartum visits to identify opportunities for addressing disparities and barriers to care.

This project includes engaging local practices in understanding how they are looking at their own visit data for disparities in postpartum visit attendance, as well as a medical record chart review and key informant interviews with recently delivered birthing people.

Email CINCH@evms.edu for more information on how to become involved with the study.

CINCH is addressing teen health issues, such as substance use, mental health, bullying, sexual and reproductive health, social media use and more.

Work to address Teen Health will commence in 2024 with a series of convening meetings and action planning.