WIC CIAO PROJECT – January 2025

Queens Community House – Childcare Network (QCCN) is pleased to announce that our proposal was selected for funding for Round 2 of the WIC CIAO project.

QCCN is excited to be part of innovative outreach strategies to increase awareness, participation, and benefit redemption in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

WIC is a federal nutrition program that provides healthy foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding counseling and support, and health care and social service referrals for eligible pregnant and postpartum individuals, infants, and children up to age 5.   

WIC participation has proven to combat many negative health outcomes linked to food insecurity. Parents and children enrolled in WIC have demonstrated healthier births, improved birth weights, reduced risk of infant mortality, better infant-feeding practices, more nutritious diets, better access to primary and preventive health care, healthier neighborhood food environments, as well as improved cognitive development and academic achievement in childhood.

QCCN is seeking to strengthen WIC awareness, engagement, and enrollment specifically among immigrant and non-citizen families in Queens.

PROJECT GOALS include:

• ENHANCING WIC AWARENESS: By providing culturally relevant information and outreach, QCCN will mitigate misinformation and increase trust within immigrant and non-citizen families.
• COMBATTING barriers to wic: QCCN will collaborate with trusted community partners to develop multilingual materials and more inclusive environments for WIC participation.
• CREATING “WIC AMBASSADORS”: QCCN will recruit and train our childcare providers and parents to develop a sustainable network of community leaders to promote WIC enrollment.

QCCN is now recruiting for selected parents and providers to serve as WIC AMBASSADORS to LEARN, EARN, & CREATE COMMUNITY IMPACT!

Participants will receive e-gift cards for participation in training on how to promote WIC awareness, discuss the benefits of the program, and the steps to apply. Incentives will also be eligible to WIC Ambassadors for successful WIC referrals and for survey completion.