BREAK THE CYCLE Program

The Break the Cycle 12 conference is April 24-25, 2017

To apply, please download an application.

Deadline is September 20, 2016

Break the Cycle

Cycle of Environmental Health Disparities

Break the Cycle is a collaborative interdisciplinary research and training program involving University faculty who mentor graduate and undergraduate students in academic tracks that focus on the impact of environmental factors on children’s health. The target populations are communities where the environmental hazards are related to circumstances of social and economic disadvantage.

This program is at the heart of ISDD in that it offers a broad look at the relationship between social and economic disadvantage and developmental disabilities and other chronic medical conditions.

ISDD works in partnership with the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at Emory University, and the Sustainability Initiative at Emory University, Break the Cycle is a multidisciplinary academic program that focuses on cultivating future leaders in fields of medicine, nursing, public health, law, social work and education.

Each year, the Break the Cycle team invites students and faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to develop projects that will Break the Cycle of Disadvantage and Disability and raise awareness of children's environmental health disparities.

The students present their projects at a national conference and the results are published in international journals. Over the past 8 years Break the Cycle has engaged 71 students from 24 universities in 8 states in the USA and one from Santiago Chile that have resulted in the pulication of 5 journal supplements. This set of projects forms the basis for a book series.

Break the Cycle focuses on raising awareness of children's environmental health disparities and on cultivating future leaders.

ISDD is the recipient of the 2013 Martin Luther King Jr Award from Emory University Goizueta School of Business and the Rollins School of Public Health.