Research & Service

The T2 Fitness Foundation is a 501(c)3 established in 2018 to empower and equip individuals with the skills and strategies they need to lead healthier lifestyles inexpensively. This foundation offers a 12-week comprehensive wellness program geared toward helping African American women in Hampton Roads improve their fitness levels, reduce the impacts of hypertension and diabetes on their health, and establish healthier relationships with food. This program aims to impart behavioral changes to these women’s lives so that they will live healthier lifestyles for years to come.

This collaboration supports student internship placements and provides academic support to students to assess the program’s effectiveness. This year, we placed two undergraduate students in the program for internship opportunities. These students worked with the organization to conduct field-based data gathering. We have trainedthem to code and enter data collected with paper and pencil, run data analyses using SPSS, and write reports using visualization approaches appropriate for specific community partners.
Although this collaboration did not receive funding, the student interns did receive paid internships to work with the T2 Fresh Start Initiative. We are currently working with the program leadership to design a logic model and evaluation plan approved by the ODU IRB. We expect this phase to receive funding during the following grant cycle.

Kin and Kids Consulting’s goal is to expand Kinship Care and Aging Services based on years of community service and social action.

This collaboration studies the effectiveness of the nationwide Circle of Parents program. We are currently in the developmental stage, working with other faculty members from the School of Community and Environmental Health. The next step is to write a grant to provide collaborative support for the initiative.

The Center provides ongoing research support and mentoring to students completing internships at the Center or placed in the local community for practicum and internship opportunities. This support is provided through an MOU for population health with the Chesapeake Health Department that promotes building the capacity of students involved in research projects with community partners in Hampton Roads. Through this collaboration, we develop students’ abilities, mainly in data management and analysis. This year, we hosted 11 students at the Center and placed seven students for practicum opportunities with local organizations in Hampton Roads.

Community Partners: Suffolk Public Schools (SPS), Obici Sentara Healthcare, the Franklin and Suffolk Health Departments, and the American Diabetes Association

This project is ongoing. In 2019, SPS readapted components of their “Wellness Initiatives for a Happy, Healthy, Productive Staff” program based on the health needs of bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and custodians. In 2020, the ODU Center for Global Health (CGH) developed data collection instruments (organizational culture and the reflection questionnaire) and submitted them to the IRB for the implementation stage of the current program. In May 2022, we implemented theYear Two climate survey to gather information regarding the participants’ demographic characteristics, perceptions of the wellness program, physical, emotional, and mental health statuses, sleep patterns, barriers to program participation, and perceptions of the organizational culture of SPS. The Year One survey was implemented last year, and this year, we will have the opportunity to examine trends in many of these variables to assess the wellness program’s effectiveness.

The partnership with the Chesapeake Health Department (CHD) is an ongoing project. This year, the CGH has worked collaboratively with the department to compare general COVID-19 trends in Chesapeake schools and compare cases between private schools, daycares, and public schools. We also planned to examine the impacts of mitigation strategies on COVID-19 cases in different settings. We reviewed and analyzed the secondary data following IRB approval. We worked with our partners to submit an abstract to NACCHO and accepted it for presentation at the national conference in July. This innovative project highlights many implications for practice and recommendations for other school districts aiming to address public health issues.

Additionally, as part of our MOU with the CHD, we provide evaluation support for Healthy Chesapeake (HC), the population health arm of the Chesapeake Health Department. We are currently working with the HC to develop an evaluation plan for the Thrives program to provide practicum opportunities for the Joint School of Public Health School.

Community Partners: Healthy Chesapeake Inc.

The ODU CGH provides evaluation support for Healthy Chesapeake (HC) program activities. The HC program, created under the Chesapeake Health Department’s leadership and city leaders’ leadership, addresses health issues by focusing on low-Health Opportunity Index (HOI) communities in Chesapeake. This program uses community-driven approaches to implement nutrition education, promote access to healthy food, encourage an active lifestyle, and ameliorate chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. The projects run by HC emphasize community empowerment. From Fall 2021 to Summer 2022, we submitted a continued progress report and received approval from the ODU IRB. Then, we surveyed the program’s board members to assess their beliefs regarding what HC has accomplished, whether HC is meeting its goals, and potentially missed opportunities.

Additionally, we gathered clinical and behavioral data to assess the effectiveness of the HUB program. Specifically, we determined the extent to which the HUB program has accomplished its set targets per the IRB guidelines. We also developed surveys to assess regional food insecurity levels and community members’ experiences with nutrition classes. Students translated some of these surveys into Spanish to gather data from the Spanish-speaking population. In April 2022, we submitted an abstract to the American Public Health Association (APHA) highlighting the dedication of the HUB program staff as the driving force for accountability and eagerness to approach each appointment with an accomplished milestone.
Due to their integral role with HC in South Norfolk in providing food assistance, we assisted the Buffalow Family and Friends in developing three surveys to assess client satisfaction and elicit suggestions for improvement in program services.

In Fall 2021, we modified the Global Health Heroes program from an in-person to a virtual format to appeal to a worldwide audience. We worked with students to redesign the program’s modules and activities, addressing oral health, pollution, climate change, and cancer. Our goal is to use opportunities such as this to train students in health education program planning and design. Furthermore, we aim to make these resources available for download from the Center’s website. In Spring 2022, we used the training of trainers framework to educate MPH students about concepts they must consider when designing programs to address community and public health challenges. We are currently in the process of submitting a paper describing this project.

During Fall 2021 and Spring 2022, the CGH collaborated with the Public Health Student Association to plan and implement virtual public health talks. We worked with key public health professionals and stakeholders, such as faculty and students, to define public health topics, and assisted in designing advertisement materials. Over the past year, we have discussed topics such as achieving secure food communities, the American Red Cross - Always There in a Time of Need, and social marketing.