Case Study: Rapid Training of Community Health Workers Using Enskill®

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many workers to lose their jobs, and also resulted in rapid surges in demand for workers with particular skills. In public health there was suddenly a huge demand for community health workers to conduct contact tracing, vaccination, and community outreach. To address this need, our team undertook the challenge of creating an online course that trains workers for community health work in half the time of typical training programs. It utilizes the Enskill® learning platform, which uses AI technology to create simulated scenarios in which trainees practice skills with avatars acting as simulated patients. Fifty-seven training participants without college degrees were recruited for the program from the Hampton Roads region, in collaboration with the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. The first cohorts of trainees were able to complete the training successfully in just eight weeks, and are now being placed in public health and healthcare positions. The approach also shows promise for upskilling existing employees to address skill gaps. The Enskill training program is a competitor in the XPRIZE Foundation’s Rapid Reskilling competition, to quickly reskill under-resourced workers for the digital revolution.

Criticality assessment for a regional maritime economy

Objective: To identify and assess the criticality for infrastructure assets and better understand their dependencies, interdependencies, and supply chain reliance.Design: This study used a modified mission impact, symbolism, history, accessibility, recognizability, population, and proximity model combined with a deliberative process with regional subject matter experts. Setting: Hampton roads Virginia maritime area.Participants: Emergency managers, US Corps of Engineers, US Coast Guard, law enforcement, railroad industry, intelligence community, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Virginia Department of Transportation, and Virginia Port.Main outcome: A prioritized list of one-to-n critical assets in the maritime area and identification of up and downstream dependencies.Results: The final most highly critical grouping included 26 out of 277 assets including especially important road bridges and tunnels, rail bridges and choke points, shipping channels, and marine terminals. Conclusions: Subject matter experts identified 277 critical infrastructure assets in the Hampton Roads Maritime Area (HRMA). From these, 26 assets that were deemed to be significantly more critical than others. From this reduced list, 12 were further assessed to be most important. The selection process provided significant support to those responsible for providing protection, mitigating potential damage, and planning recovery and allows informed, objective expenditures of limited funding. Additional key findings include the following:Proximity, or the potential for an asset that has been damaged or destroyed to cause direct harm to adjacent assets in the surrounding community, drives criticality in the HRMA more than any other factor in the model.A small group of 26 out of 277 assets exerts an outsized impact in the HRMA—nearly 20 percent of criticality—due to the potential consequences associated with their destruction or disruption.Road transportation, particularly tunnels, represents the primary dependency among critical assets. Major road and maritime transportation assets rely heavily on federal and state organizations to maintain their function.Supply chain: The critical asset group supports or supplies many missions and industries both nationally and internationally, including defense, manufacturing, commercial enterprise, and the movement of raw commodities.

INTERDEPENDENCIES BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL VULNERABILITY IN A STORM RISK ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK APPLIED TO HAMPTON ROADS, VIRGINIA

Risk assessment frameworks such as HAZUS-MH (FEMA, 2010) have been used globally to estimate potential losses like physical damage to structural establishments, economic loss, shelter requirements, displaced households, etc. due to multi-hazards like earthquake, flood and hurricane hazards. However, HAZUS-MH fails to consider interdependencies between physical and social capacities of affected communities. The present study aims to develop a conceptual risk assessment framework for storm hazards in coastal communities that addresses these limitations through an integrated physical and social vulnerability assessment applied to Hampton Roads, Virginia. By including interdependencies, interactions between the physical and social vulnerability will be studied. We hypothesize that changes in housing occupancy status affect the physical damage and changes in population density affect the social vulnerability. Therefore, the integrated physical and social vulnerability will change in response to a current event and therefore make the same region more or less impacted in a subsequent future event.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/JzCsvurKrxU

An Investigation into the Impact of Rainfall on Freeway Traffic Flow

The purpose of this research effort was to investigate the impact of rainfall, at varying levels of intensity, on freeway capacity and operating speeds. Findings were derived from traffic and weather data collected in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. Light rain (0.01 to 0.25 inches per hour) decreases freeway capacity by 4 to 10 percent. Heavy rain (0.25 inches per hour or greater) decreases freeway capacity by 25 to 30 percent. The presence of rain, regardless of intensity, results in approximately a 3 to 5 percent average decrease in operating speed. The findings indicated that the impact of rain is more significant than currently reported in the Highway Capacity Manual.

­­Awareness and Outcomes of the Fruits and Veggies (FNV) Campaign to Promote Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among Targeted Audiences in California and Virginia: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: The Partnership for a Healthier America launched the branded Fruits & Veggies (FNV) Campaign in 2015 to promote fruit and vegetable sales and intake to moms and teens in two United States pilot market areas: Fresno, California and Hampton Roads, Virginia. The aims of this cross-sectional study were to: 1) assess brand awareness and fruit- and vegetable-related outcomes among respondents from the target audiences of the FNV Campaign (i.e., moms and teens) in the Fresno, CA and Hampton Roads, VA market locations; and 2) examine whether reported awareness of the FNV Campaign was associated with differences in cognitive and behavioral outcomes related to fruit and vegetable purchases and intake among the target audiences in the two markets. Methods: Data for this cross-sectional study were collected using an online survey (February to July 2017) administered to a non-probability convenience sample (n=1604) of youth aged 14–20 years (n=744) and moms aged 21–36 years (n=860) in the two pilot markets. Binary logistic regression was used to examine associations between FNV brand awareness and dichotomous variables, and analysis of covariance was used to assess associations with continuous variables, after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Approximately 20% (n=315) of respondents reported awareness of the FNV Campaign. Youth aware of the FNV Campaign (n=167) reported higher intentions to buy (p=0.003) and eat (p=0.009) fruits and vegetables than unaware respondents. Mothers aware of the FNV Campaign (n=148) reported greater encouragement for friends and family to eat fruits and vegetables (p=0.013) and were approximately 1.5 times more likely to report trying a new fruit or vegetable (p=0.04) than mothers unaware of the FNV Campaign. Daily fruit and vegetable intake frequency did not differ by FNV Campaign awareness. Conclusions: Awareness of the FNV Campaign was associated with limited but positive cognitive and behavioral outcomes among target audience respondents. These findings can inform future research to enhance understanding and improve effectiveness of the FNV Campaign as it is expanded to new markets nationwide.

­­Awareness of the Fruits and Veggies (FNV) Campaign Among Target Audiences in California and Virginia: A Cross-sectional Study

Background The Partnership for a Healthier America launched the branded Fruits & Veggies (FNV) Campaign in 2015 to promote fruit and vegetable sales and intake to mothers and teens in two US pilot media market areas: Fresno, California and Hampton Roads, Virginia. Limited evidence is available on the effectiveness of marketing strategies to influence consumers’ fruit and vegetable demand. This cross-sectional study assessed associations between awareness of the FNV Campaign and attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and behaviors related to fruit and vegetable purchases and consumption among targeted audiences from the California and Virginia pilot markets. Methods Data were collected using an online survey between February and July 2017 using a purposive sample (n = 1604) of youth aged 14–20 years (n = 744) and mothers aged 21–36 years (n = 860). Results Approximately 20% (n = 315) of respondents reported awareness of the FNV Campaign. Youth aware of the FNV Campaign (n = 167) reported higher intentions to buy (p = 0.003) and eat (p = 0.009) fruits and vegetables than unaware youth respondents. Mothers aware of the FNV Campaign (n = 148) reported greater encouragement for friends and family to eat fruits and vegetables (p = 0.013) and had approximately 1.5 times higher odds of reporting trying a new fruit or vegetable (p = 0.04) than unaware mothers. Daily fruit and vegetable intake frequency did not differ by Campaign awareness. Conclusions Awareness of the FNV Campaign was associated with limited but positive cognitive and behavioral outcomes among target audience respondents. The present findings can inform future research to enhance understanding and improve effectiveness of FNV Campaign marketing practices as it expands throughout new markets nationwide.