Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** there are significant opportunities…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** there are significant opportunities to increase the health and wellbeing of pregnant women, infants and children in the U.S. WIC provides invaluable support to this population, however, there is a noted enrollment and retention GAP among those who are benefits-eligible. This is a strategic GAP that WIC is trying to close by exploring ways to recruit, equip, and retain a more diverse and competent workforce that is representative of the WIC populations being served. This RFP recognizes opportunities for improvement in WIC implementation, including through localized hiring and upskilling of PPS, and acknowledges challenges due to differences in program design. These differences allow for innovation and adaptation to best meet local needs (e.g., differences in participant needs and demographics), and provide an opportunity for real-time evaluation of implementation models that can inform standards of practice. Drawing on our expertise with WIC, public health workforce development and workforce competency research, our mission is to help WIC increase the diversity and cultural competency of the WIC workforce and address barriers to recruitment and retention of WIC staff by documenting promising approaches and strategies, diffusing innovation to accelerate adoption at a local agency level, and informing more standard guidance and tools from a federal level. As a part of this, our aims are to identify practices that (a) build capacity among locally recruited staff, equipping them to be skilled PPS who can support low-risk individuals, and (b) create working conditions that entice trained WIC staff to stay, serve, and grow in their roles.