Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) WIC agency’s project aims to increase WIC awareness and enrollment among Portuguese families and immigrant families in the Northern part of Newark, New Jersey, the Ironbound district.
Rutgers NJMS will establish a WIC satellite site to meet the community where they are and will create a centralized application process. Working with social services partners, they aim to increase pre-certification and follow-up certification appointments by ensuring participants are being offered WIC at the point of service as opposed to a referral at the end of service.
Rutgers NJMS will use feedback on WIC application and redemption barriers from community surveys to develop educational materials and toolkits to address community-identified challenges with WIC benefit redemption.
Lessons learned will help direct future work in streamlining of WIC application and referral processes within a universal application. Findings and materials developed will be disseminated, helping to strengthen partnerships and work between WIC agencies and vendors.
