Collier Health Services, Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida WIC CIAO Project

Collier Health Services, Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida’s (HCN) project aims to improve awareness of WIC benefits and services among Spanish and Haitian-Creole speakers in Collier County and increase the use of WIC food package benefits and services among persons who are in target zip codes and/or are non-English speakers.

HCN will expand partnerships to develop a referral system with the local WIC agency and include WIC outreach, screening, and linkages in workplace settings, including farms and packinghouses.

Innovative outreach strategies include embedding Spanish- and Creole-speaking WIC liaisons/promotoras into various HCN site-based clinics and mobile clinics (including pediatric dental and maternal health) and the use of technology and social media in Haitian-Creole and Spanish languages to increase WIC awareness and enrollment among non-English speakers.

The strategies employed by the HCN will be transferable to other health care operations that seek to increase WIC participation among migrant and farmerworker communities, inlcuding non-English speakers.