wichealth.org WEBCAST!

The wichealth team in conjunction with Michigan WIC and the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI) are underway with the planning of the wichealth webcast to take place on August 21, 2008. The wichealth webcast will give a better understanding of wichealth.org and will help participants to:

• Identify key theoretical underpinnings of the wichealth.org system.
• Explain how wichealth.org fits in the nutrition education mission of your state or agency.
• Delineate 3 ways in which wichealth.org supports the VENA initiative.
• Describe two characteristics of wichealth.org that promote client satisfaction with nutrition education.
• Discuss 2 methodologies inherent in the wichealth.org model that facilitate active behavioral change.
• Compare the outcomes of wichealth.org research study on the consumption of fruits and vegetables to one other model of client nutrition education used in a WIC setting.

Register for the Webcast at http://www.eandt.mphi.org/.

The archived webcast will be available online after August 23rd at http://www.wichealthwebcast.org.

We had a great time at the 2008 NWA conference in Minneapolis May 26th and 27th. At our exhibit booth we displayed materials to promote wichealth and provided information about the upcoming webcast. Thank you for stopping by. It was great to see so many familiar faces and to meet so many new ones.

Be sure to stop by and see us at the Breastfeeding and Nutrition Ed. Conference in Louisville Kentucky September 28th. We will have lots of materials about wichealth.org as well as information on piloting the online nutrition ed. Resource in your local agency and state!

Posted on 06/16/2008

New Handouts and Marketing Materials!

In the materials sections there are several new handouts and materials for you, your staff, and your clients. Under the client materials section, you will find a new ID-VOC insert in Spanish and English. This insert was designed to fit into your clients WIC folder and helps promote use of wichealth in your clinic. The insert lets clients know what is available on wichealth and gives step-by-step instructions on how to use wichealth. Also available in the client materials section is a new client flyer- in Spanish and English. These flyers can be set out in your clinic or handed out to your clients to promote use of wichealth. It runs through step-by-step instructions on how to login and complete a module as well as instructions for emailing the certificate, should your clinic allow this option. Amy Malow has provided us with the rest of her Meals and Snacks and Physical Activity handouts. These are also available in the client materials section. These materials are staged and should be used as literature to follow-up with a client after completing their nutrition education on the Internet.

In the WIC staff materials section there is a new staff flyer available. The staff flyer helps to promote wichealth to your staff as well as help them to understand what wichealth is, what some of the benefits of using wichealth are, what type of clients should use wichealth, what implementation resources are available, and what agency staff need to do to promote the use of wichealth among their clients. The flyer is very informative and helpful in promoting wichealth to agency staff and in answering any unanswered questions they may have about wichealth.

Posted on 05/13/2008

Fruit and Vegetable Education Project Comes to a Close

The Fruit and Vegetable Evaluation Project has come to a close. All of the data has been collected as well as analyzed and we are waiting to hear back from USDA on their thoughts about the project. We would like to thank all of the clinics for their thorough participation with the project. The smoothie maker raffle will be underway as soon as the smoothie makers arrive and we will notify each clinic of the winners. To be eligible, a participant had to complete all 4 surveys during the second year of the project.

Posted on 05/13/2008

Spanish Translation and Design Update

To date, we have a total of 4 modules translated and available in the Spanish version of wichealth. We are working hard with Latino Health Communications on the translation of 4 more modules as well as re-designing the look and feel of the Spanish version of wichealth. In October, the modules Be Healthy as your Baby Grows, Help Your Child Make Good Eating Choices, Create Good Eating Habits in Your Child, and Support for Breastfeeding Moms will all be available in Spanish. Also look for the new design coming in October!

Posted on 05/13/2008

Fruit and Vegetable Evaluation Update

We are beginning the second month of client enrollment for the 2nd phase of the Fruit and Vegetable Education Project. This time around we have simplified the process to make it easier for staff, added more client incentives to assist in increasing participation and will be making monthly visits to each participating clinic.

Tips for the 2nd phase:

•Don’t get the surveys from the 1st and 2nd phase mixed up. The 2nd phase deals with the client’s children instead of the client. To prevent any mix-ups dispose of the surveys from the 1st phase or set them aside for your wichealth.org contact person to pick them up.

•Remind clients about the drawing for the smoothie maker at the end of the 2nd phase (only clients who complete all surveys are eligible) as well as the other great incentives along the way!

•Keep good communication with your contact person at wichealth.org, let them know as soon as possible when there are questions or you need extra supplies.

•Be enthusiastic. Clients will be more interested in participating if the staff is excited about the project.

•Eligibility- Any client who has a young child. If you’re not sure, enroll the client anyway, our evaluators can rule out those clients that are not eligible

•All eligible clients can participate, not just the those that participated the 1st phase.

Posted on 11/15/2006

Clinic Visits

All clinics will have two visits by their designated contact person by the end of June.

The first visit was to bring a promotional poster that highlights the incentives each client will receive for the purpose of motivating them to continue in the study. Additionally the wichealth.org representative was available to answer questions and offer help on making the project more successful.

The second visit will take place around the end of June and will give the wichealth.org representative a chance to review the next portion of the study with WIC staff and drop off all incentive bags for clients who complete the 3rd survey. The amount of incentive bags provided to each clinic will be based on the number of green surveys sent back to WMU.

Incentive bags include items such as pads of paper, growth charts, vegetable clips, pens and pencils, coupons and hackey sack balls.

Posted on 06/08/2006

Fruit and Vegetable Education Project Update

We are almost halfway through the Fruit and Vegetable Education Project! There are a total of 14 clinics involved throughout Michigan. The recruitment portion of the study ended the beginning of May and we have already begun to receive the 2nd set of surveys (yellow). Below is the total number of clients each clinic recruited:

174 Muskegon
90 Oceana-Hart
87 Harper-Gratiot
54 Wayne
50 Greenville/Stanton
47 Ionia
36 Ingham
35 Ithica
29 Herman-Kiefer
22 Kalkaska
19 Taylor
13 St. Johns
10 Burton
5 McCree

We'd like to offer a special thanks to all participating clinics for helping to make this project a success!

Posted on 06/08/2006

wichealthsupport.org Gets Redesigned

The website has been redesigned and reformatted and will undergo a feedback process among WIC staff to ensure that it is as comprehensive and user-friendly as possible.

Posted on 06/08/2006

Two New Handouts Added

Two new handouts have been added to the Materials section. Both are for clients with either toddlers or preschoolers wanting more information about meals and snacks and who are in preparation stage.

Posted on 05/15/2006