Making WIC Work for Multicultural Communities - Food Research ...

Targeting African American and Latino
Children
The pilot specifically targets Latino and African
American WIC participants, the two largest WIC
populations in DC. One motivational interviewing
and one “motivational interviewing plus” pilot clinic
(Mary’s Center and Upper Cardozo) are
predominately Latino, while the two others (DC
General Hospital and Good Hope Road) are
predominately African American. The goal of the
pilot is to see if motivational interviewing is more
effective in one group over the other.
Phase Two: Implementation
If the pilot is successful, the nutritionists trained
during the pilot will help train all other WIC
nutritionists in DC. In addition, the State Agency will develop a motivational interviewing training manual
and tool kit for nutritionists in other states to use. Similar motivational interviewing pilots have been
conducted in North Dakota and Nebraska.
Project Evaluation
A piloted evaluation questionnaire will be given to all moms, guardians, and primary caretakers who wish
to participate in the study. Participants will be recruited from all seven sites. In addition, the State
Agency will conduct a cost-benefit analysis of motivational interviewing and “motivational interviewing
plus.”
Lessons Learned
Although they are still in the early stages of the project, the DC WIC State Agency has already learned
several valuable lessons while conducting the motivational interviewing pilot. First, they learned that in
order for motivational interviewing to be successful, it is necessary that the nutritionists implementing the
technique speak the same language as participants. If not, a translator would be useful in decreasing
language barriers. In addition, although the grant targets children between the ages of two and five,
staff still needs to meet the needs of the other children who come into the pilot clinics, which is often a
challenge.
Resources
In FY 2005, the DC WIC State Agency received a three-year Special Project Grant ($130,000) from the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to pilot motivational
interviewing in DC. The initiative is also supported by a $10,000 General Mills grant, which funds the
additional nutrition activities used in the “motivational interviewing plus” pilot clinics. States interested in
this initiative could also use training funds from their regular WIC budget (Nutrition Services and
Administration funding) to train nutritionists in motivational interviewing.
Languages Used
English and Spanish
Populations Served
Black/African American, and Latino
Making WIC Work for Multicultural Communities: Best Practices in Outreach and Nutrition Education 31