The Hopkins/USDA Participant Research Innovation Laboratory for Enhancing WIC Services (HPRIL) is a cooperative agreement between Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service that competitively selected local WIC agencies nationally to explore, through innovative and replicable interactive tools, how to accurately determine the family characteristics that predict early conclusion and employ family-based interactive tools and social media to retain eligible high risk children ages 1 to 4 in the WIC program for maximum benefit.
In July 2019, HPRIL awarded five local WIC agencies to participate in the project with the aim of addressing the issue of WIC child drop-out by testing innovative projects aimed at improving WIC retention among 1 to 4 year olds. HPRIL uses data from WIC management information systems (MIS) to evaluate the impact of the innovative projects on retention. The awardees are:
- Pima County, Arizona
- Yavapai County WIC, Arizona
- Florida Department of Public Health Miami-Dade County WIC Program, Florida
- Cabarrus Health Alliance, North Carolina
- Public Health Solutions, New York
For more information about project and the awardees, visit the HPRIL page.