Video Stories

  • Meet Marina

    Meet Marina

    Meet Marina https://vimeo.com/761920727 Marina enrolled in Child Health Partnership when her oldest child was two years old and she was pregnant with her younger child. Soon after enrollment, her newborn was born prematurely and suffered a serious infection. Once the baby was discharged and stable, Marina focused on supporting her older child with speech development.…

  • Meet Tamia

    Meet Tamia

    Meet Tamia https://vimeo.com/761912485 Tamia is the mom of two young boys. She was suffering with some undiagnosed health issues and was worried about her older son who was struggling with his speech. When her younger child was born, she felt overwhelmed with finding the best way to support her own health and to help her…

  • Meet Jerry

    Meet Jerry

    Meet Jerry https://vimeo.com/630159049 Jerry supported the needs of his preterm child, taking on his new role of fatherhood with joy and pride. 

  • Meet Laura

    Meet Laura

    Meet Laura https://vimeo.com/365838639 When Laura first came to CHiP, she was 17, pregnant and a high school junior living with her mother, step-father, and younger siblings. When she turned 18, her parents allowed her to move in with her boyfriend (now husband), Gabriel, who lived with his family. Laura had a healthy pregnancy and a…

  • Meet Kejashia

    Meet Kejashia

    Meet Kejashia https://vimeo.com/365766735 Kejashia first discovered CHiP in 2011 as a pregnant teenager attending Charlottesville High School. She enrolled in the Parenteen Program, attending educational and social support groups on a regular basis. She was experiencing both physical and emotional abuse at this time and decided to relocate to North Carolina. Sadly, her unborn daughter…

  • Meet Elsa and Mauricio

    Meet Elsa and Mauricio

    Meet Elsa and Mauricio https://vimeo.com/365618402Elsa and Mauricio’s story is as old as America, a family in search of a better life making their way to the United States. Hoping to escape the gang violence plaguing their home country of El Salvador, Elsa and Mauricio each came to the US looking for safety, security and opportunity.…

  • Meet Ana

    Meet Ana

    Meet Ana https://vimeo.com/293224658 If love and sheer force of will can work miracles, that has certainly been the case for Ana and Anita. When we met Ana, she was a single mother to her daughter Anita. Her baby had been born too early and with severe medical complications, including being born blind and deaf. Anita…

  • Meet Tracy

    Meet Tracy

    Meet Tracy https://vimeo.com/293320487 As a water safety instructor for the city of Charlottesville, Tracy describes learning to swim as an important life skill – knowing what to do and how not to panic if you find yourself under water. So it was when she found herself metaphorically and emotionally underwater – she needed a little…

  • Meet Ahmed and Dareen

    Meet Ahmed and Dareen

    Meet Ahmed and Dareen https://vimeo.com/293328705 Picture a family with four children that includes two school-aged, a three year old with significant special medical needs, and an infant. Already, you know these parents have their hands full. Now imagine this is your family. You are managing the daily needs and special challenges of raising your family…

  • Meet Cynthia

    Meet Cynthia

    Meet Cynthia https://vimeo.com/185673866 Graduating from high school is a significant milestone — one that can make all the difference in future education, employment, and income opportunities — but for Cynthia, graduation was more than just a stepping stone. It was a monument to her persistence, determination, and commitment to herself and her daughter, Nyani. Cynthia…

  • Meet Anabel

    Meet Anabel

    Meet Anabel https://vimeo.com/185682110 Anabel grew up in Honduras. She had finished school, but then found herself with no job opportunities and little hope. Like many before her, she took a chance on the American dream. Her mother and siblings were already here, so that made the move a little easier. Unfortunately, in addition to starting…

  • Meet George and Stephanie

    Meet George and Stephanie

    Meet George and Stephanie https://vimeo.com/185687619 When George and Stephanie were expecting their first baby, they were naturally nervous and excited. But baby Georgie was born too soon. He arrived at 32 weeks, weighing a mere 2 pounds, 7 ounces. He had multiple medical complications and spent his first four and a half months in the…

  • Meet Alfredo

    Meet Alfredo

    Meet Alfredo https://vimeo.com/141692800 2015 Imagine Award honoree Alfredo Avendano Lucas. It was love and hope for a better life that led Alfredo to the United States. Alfredo and his then-fiancée, Jaqueline, started their life together – finding work, getting married and starting a family. It was a happy time. Then in July of 2013, the…

  • Meet Bethany

    Meet Bethany

    Meet Bethany https://vimeo.com/141693522 2015 Imagine Award honoree Bethany Burton. In 2007, Bethany’s life as she knew it was irrevocably altered. She had been a bright college student, but one day on her way from work to her home in Louisa County, she fell asleep at the wheel just down the road from her house. Bethany’s…

  • Meet Saniteah

    Meet Saniteah

    Meet Saniteah https://vimeo.com/108488331 2014 Imagine Award honoree Saniteah Gboley. Saniteah was only in 10th grade when she became pregnant. Still just a girl herself, Saniteah and her family were still coming to grips with the sudden loss of her mother just a year earlier. Now Saniteah was going to be a mother – who would…

  • Meet Jessica

    Meet Jessica

    Meet Jessica https://vimeo.com/108488332 2014 Imagine Award honoree Jessica S. Life on the run – not exactly how you imagine raising your family, but when violence shattered her world, it didn’t end with the loss of her husband. Threats of further violence continued to put her family at risk, so Jessica had no choice but to…

  • Meet Jessica E.

    Meet Jessica E.

    Meet Jessica E. https://vimeo.com/108488333 2014 Imagine Award honoree Jessica Evans. Jessica’s memory of her own childhood is largely one of solitude. She recalls spending many hours playing alone at home – perhaps a hint at the struggles with depression and anxiety she would experience in her teens. By 12th grade, Jessica had lost the will to…

  • Meet Amino & Kassim

    Meet Amino & Kassim

    Meet Amino & Kassim https://vimeo.com/78102999 2013 Imagine Award honorees Amino and Kassim Muse Amino’s story is at once exotic and quintessentially American. As a refugee from Somalia, Amino spent the better part of her childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya before being resettled in the United States at age 16. Unable to read and…

  • Meet Kelli

    Meet Kelli

    Meet Kelli https://vimeo.com/77058267 2013 Imagine Award Honoree Kelli Maige An unexpected pregnancy can often add unexpected complications, but when your life is as Kelli puts it, “on a path to destruction”, that pregnancy might be the very thing that saves your life. When CHiP first started working with Kelli in the fall of 2010 she…

  • Meet Victoria

    Meet Victoria

    Meet Victoria https://vimeo.com/77015706 2013 Imagine Award Honoree Victoria Cabell Victoria was a bright, pretty, athletic girl with big dreams for her future. Becoming a mother at 16 was not part of the plan. Her pregnancy was surprising and scary. She worried about how she would be able to take care of a baby and get…

  • Meet Selena

    Meet Selena

    Meet Selena https://vimeo.com/61275600 2012 Imagine Award Honoree Selena Garcia Selena was raised in an abusive household, left school in the 8th grade, and had her first child at age 16.   As Selena describes it, “I grew up so fast; all I wanted was to get away from home. I wanted to build something different. Something better.”…

  • Meet Wendy

    Meet Wendy

    Meet Wendy https://vimeo.com/54459849 2012 Imagine Award Honoree Wendy Miranda At age 16, Wendy was pregnant and a runaway. She had dropped out of high school, found herself in an abusive relationship, and ended up alone and frightened 3000 miles from home. She needed help. Her parents welcomed her back, granting her a place to raise…

  • Meet Joyce

    Meet Joyce

    Meet Joyce https://vimeo.com/62456326 2012 Imagine Award Honoree Joyce Sandridge Two years ago, Joyce lost her daughter to breast cancer. The pain and grief were intense not only for Joyce, but also for her daughter’s 2-year old son, Jahcear. After her daughter’s death, and the realization that she would need to raise her grandson on her…

  • Meet Rosario

    Meet Rosario

    Meet Rosario https://vimeo.com/30876279 2011 Imagine Awards Honoree Rosario Gutierrez Rosario was just 14 years old when she discovered she was pregnant. She began her partnership with her CHiP team when her daughter was two, and she was juggling child-care along with high school classes and band practice. Together, Rosario and her CHiP team worked on…

  • Meet Sherrika

    Meet Sherrika

    Meet Sherrika https://vimeo.com/31498014 2011 Imagine Award Honoree Sherrika Nowell-Green Sherrika frequently reminds herself just how far she’s come since 2002, when she was a single teenage mother living in subsidized housing. Through personal experience, she knows how hard it can be to overcome the damage caused by divorce, neglect, abuse, and unplanned pregnancy. But Sherrika…

  • Meet Estela and Luis

    Meet Estela and Luis

    Meet Estela and Luis https://vimeo.com/30872763 2011 Imagine Award Honoree Estela and Luis Ramirez Estela and Luis experienced a roller coaster of emotions when their twins were born early—at 27 weeks’ gestation—and admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The NICU referred the family to CHiP when the babies were born. During their lengthy hospital…

  • Meet Ashley

    Meet Ashley

    Meet Ashley https://vimeo.com/30865184 2011 Imagine Award Honoree Ashley Jurney It’s never easy to be 15, but for Ashley it was an especially tumultuous year. After going into foster care to escape a stressful home situation, beginning to concentrate at school, and starting to set goals for herself, she found out she was pregnant. The news…

  • Meet Charounda

    Meet Charounda

    Meet Charounda https://vimeo.com/30869772 2011 Imagine Award Honoree Charounda Cook Charounda’s life changed forever when her three month old son, Michael, stopped breathing in his crib. That “near-SIDS” event resulted in brain damage that affected his motor, intellectual, and speech development. He needed a wheel chair for mobility, a feeding tube for nutrition, and special equipment…