In an effort to make services and information about its programs more accessible to potential participants, Sacramento County WIC (Women, Infants and Children) has given its website a user-friendly makeover.
The resulting site—which went live in February—makes it easy for mothers to learn how to apply for WIC services, and to locate information about nutrition and breastfeeding.
The redesign was a part of a string of Web updates recently administered in Sacramento County. WIC Nutrition Education Coordinator Trish Kearney implemented changes in-house after receiving training on Web application platform Microsoft SharePoint, along with other County staff updating department pages.
The WIC site remains consistent stylistically with all other County department pages while providing easy navigation. Features include links to an online eligibility assessment, a convenient income chart and a new online welcome video, which entering participants may now choose to view in place of a mandatory in-person introductory class.
"It allows mothers to accelerate the enrollment process," said Sacramento County WIC Director Amelia Schendel, noting that enrollment and initial training in-person could take anywhere between two and three hours.
"Mothers often cannot afford to leave work to come to these appointments—many have to borrow cars to get here," she said. "With the new website, instead, it takes a quick screen check to find out if they are eligible on their home computer, at the library or on their phone."
The County website also links to WICHealth.org, where users from various states can take part in an online education pilot program and print certificates that can be used to count for required nutrition education at local agencies. In the last four months alone, 1,225 WIC families took advantage of this online option.
Currently, there are roughly 53,000 participants in the WIC program in Sacramento County. In 2010-11, the breastfeeding educational program, funded by a grant through First 5 Sacramento, offered 13,102 services to 4,107 moms.
In February, the updated County website had 214 visitors. But as WIC continues to publicize the site—they also joined Facebook in December 2011—and with 20% of current WIC participants using smart phones, numbers are expected to increase.
"The whole point of this website and outreach is to provide information to those not currently receiving WIC services," Schendel said. "Many working families don’t believe they qualify for WIC and in reality many of them do."
According to the online income chart, a family of four can make up to $20 per hour and still qualify, for instance.
Kearney and Schendel both said that they will continue to evaluate the website and online tools in order to increase these outreach efforts.
"We have the ability to expand the site after evaluating the current makeover, though we do have to follow the County’s style guidelines," Kearney said.
Sacramento County’s WIC website is located at www.dhhs.saccounty.net/PRI/WIC.
