NWA Monday Morning Report for August 10 2015
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NWA Monday Morning Report for August 10 2015
NWA Monday Morning Report for August 10, 2015 In This Issue Thank You of the Week Legislative Update Register for the 2015 Technology and Program Integrity Conference Report of the 2015-2016 NWA Nominating Committee Share Your WIC Stories! Study: WIC Participation and Costs are Stable Delaware Hospitals to Stop Giving Free Formula Community Partnerships for Healthy Mothers and Children Reforms of Social Service Partnerships Open Comment Period: Promise Zones Third Round Application Process Correction to Illinois Story Volunteer Opportunities Career Corner Congressional Schedule NWA Calendar Thank You of the Week Your commitment to mothers and young children powerfully impacts our nation’s families. Here is one WIC participant’s reflection on the good work that you do: My husband lost his job and has had his salary cut at his new job so our budget is limited. Through our monthly vouchers I am able to supplement our grocery budget, buy fruits/veggies that would otherwise be over our budget, and provide my family with much needed staple items. We also receive knowledge and support about any feeding issues that may arise. WIC services have been an answer to prayer and a much appreciated financial support during out time of need. --WIC Participant, South Dakota Legislative Update Be a Voice for WIC during August Recess: Both Houses of Congress are currently on August recess and will return to Capitol Hill on September 8, 2015. During this time, when members of Congress will be in their home districts, the National WIC Association would like to encourage you to reach out to your Senators, Representative, and their staff to give them a tour of a WIC clinic in your district. Providing legislators with an inside-look into what WIC does and who WIC serves will help to emphasize how important the program is and show policy-makers that WIC is worth protecting. If you aren’t sure who your Representative and Senators are, please use our Engage platform to look them up. Once you know who your members of Congress are, you can find their local office contact information on their website. To set up a visit, call the local office and explain who you are and that you would like to find a time to provide the Representative or Senator with a tour of a local WIC clinic while he or she is home on the August recess. If this is the first time that you will be reaching out to a member of Congress directly to host a visit, we at NWA are happy to connect you with veteran hosts in the WIC community so that you can learn the best and easiest ways to organize an event. Also, you may be wondering what you should talk about with your member of Congress, should you have the opportunity to meet with them. A good place to start would be to review our “Creating WIC Messages” PowerPoint presentation. Some additional resources to draw from include our WIC: Solid Returns on Investment fact sheet and our WIC for a Healthier, Stronger America fact sheet. If you’re comfortable, you may want to bring up the issue of Medicaid adjunctive eligibility. Medicaid adjunctive eligibility is currently under threat in Congress (particularly in the House of Representatives), so it’s important for members of Congress to hear from constituents about the importance of Medicaid adjunctive eligibility. For more information on the importance of adjunctive eligibility, please see our fact sheet. NWA also recently conducted a survey of state WIC directors about the importance of Medicaid adjunctive eligibility in their states. You can see some of the results here. The main point that you want to stress when you speak with members of Congress is that for over 40 years, WIC has played a vital role in transforming the health and nutrition of vulnerable, lowincome mothers and young children to age 5, and the program should therefore be protected and preserved. It is particularly powerful if you can provide local stories of WIC’s impacts and also local and/or state statistics on how WIC has improved health outcomes in your region. If you have any questions at all about how to engage members of Congress while they are home on recess, please do not hesitate to contact Elisabet Eppes, Program Associate, at eeppes@nwica.org or (202) 232-5492. Thank you for being a voice for WIC! Register for the 2015 Technology and Program Integrity Conference NWA invites its membership and partners to join us in St. Louis, “Gateway to the West”, for our 2015 Technology and Program Integrity Conference from Monday, September 28th to Wednesday, September 30th. You can expect to find a thoroughly planned program that will engage the “techie” in each attendee. You are encouraged to fully immerse yourself in each general and concurrent session that you attend. This conference is an opportunity for you to share and exchange information with colleagues, learn new concepts from subject matter experts, and gain insight into new innovate ideas that are rapidly changing the way we think about technology. Tentative Agenda Register Today! Reserve your hotel today! The cut-off date for our negotiated room rates is Tuesday, September 8, 2015. Rooms are filling up quickly! Report of the 2015-2016 NWA Nominating Committee The 2014-2015 NWA Nominating Committee is pleased to provide the final report of the election for the offices of Chair-Elect, Treasurer, section/coalition representatives, and for the 2015-2016 Nominating Committee. NWA voting members and their proxies cast their ballots during the NWA Annual Business meeting on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at our annual Conference in Los Angeles. The 2014-15 Nominating Committee wishes to thank all the individuals who ran for office and to congratulate the following officers and committee members who were elected by the Association’s Voting Members. Elvie Guthrie-Lewis, MS, RDN, LD, CPM -- Chair-Elect 2015-16; Chair 2016-2017; ChairEmeritus 2017-2018 Elvie Guthrie-Lewis is a US citizen originally from the island of Jamaica. She received her diploma in secondary education at Shortwood Teachers’ College. Mrs. Guthrie-Lewis taught high school food and nutrition for over eight years, and then worked two years as a teacher’s trainer. She holds a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics and Institution Management from Alcorn State University. Mrs. GuthrieLewis also holds a MS in Education with an emphasis in Nutrition. She is a registered and licensed dietitian, Certified Public Manager, and a graduate of the South Central Public Health Leadership Institute (SCPHLI). Elvie also taught as an adjunct instructor in food and science at Alcorn State University during her graduate studies. Twenty eight years ago, she joined the WIC staff in the Coastal Plains Public Health District of the Mississippi State Department of Health, where she worked five years as a Clinic Nutritionist, and twenty years as the Local Agency WIC Director. Three years ago Elvie was appointed to serve in her current position as the State WIC Director. Along the way, she has worked ten years as a part-time clinical dietitian for a small hospital, and taught nutrition at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Public Health and the WIC Program have become her passion for the past twenty eight years. Elvie also served as a former Local Agency Section Chair and Local Agency Southeastern Regional representative on the NWA Board. In Elvie’s words, “I have used my background in education, and my love for nutrition and breastfeeding to educate anyone who will give me an ear on their benefits to good health. I have served four years as the Southeast Region Local Agency Representative on the NWA Board, and would be honored to serve as your Chair Elect and subsequent Chair of the Association, and be a voice for all of WIC.” • Sue Woodbury, MBA, RDN, Treasurer 2015-2017 Sue Woodbury, MBA, RDN is the Oregon State WIC Director and Section Manager for the Nutrition & Health Screening Section, Oregon Public Health Division. She has held this position since October of 2004. In her current role, she manages WIC services for 99,000 WIC participants through 34 local agencies. She has led many statewide efforts in the WIC program including establishing the Breastfeeding Coalition of Oregon, the expansion of the breastfeeding peer counseling program, promoting policy changes to increase access to healthy food across the state, the re-establishment of the Oregon State WIC Advisory Board, and now the move to EBT. For the past three years, Sue has served on the NWA Board representing the State WIC Directors of the Western Region and as co-chair of the State Directors Section for the past two years. As Cochair she has worked to revitalize the section, enhance communications with USDA, and provide opportunities for section members to network, learn, and collaborate. Sue has also served on several NWA task forces and committees. Sue considers working for WIC and being involved with the NWA community to be the highlight of her career. 2015-2016 Nominating Committee Michael Welch, PhD, State Agency Section Representative Dr. Michael Welch is the State WIC Director for the Commonwealth of Virginia, a position he has held for four years. Prior to taking this leadership role, he was a Program Manager/WIC Coordinator for a Local WIC Agency for nearly 15 years. Dr. Welch has a firm belief in training and educating his staff at the state and local level and giving them the support they need to help the WIC Program in Virginal to be forward thinking and innovative in their service delivery. This education philosophy is close to his roots as a former Associate Professor for the United States Military Academy and Guilford College for a combined total of 14 years. Dr. Welch has held a leadership role on the NWA Board as the State Director’s Regional Representative for the Mind-Atlantic Region from 2010-2014 and he currently sits on the board of the Virginia Chapter of the March of Dimes. Leonard Mirabal, National Indian & Native American WIC Coalition (NINAWC) Representative Currently, Mr. Mirabal is the WIC Director for the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, Inc. (ENIPC). He has been with the WIC Program since May of 2013. ENIPC is one of seven Indian Tribal Organizations in New Mexico. In addition, Mr. Mirabal is Chairperson of the National Indian Native American WIC Coalition (NINWC) and represents the ITO representative under the NWA Board. This position is a two year term ending in May-2016. Previously, Mr. Mirabal worked under the USDA National School Lunch Program with the State of New Mexico Student Nutrition Bureau. Nicole Nicholas, MS, RD, LD, Nutrition Services Section Representative Nicole Nicholas is the State Nutrition Coordinator for the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s WIC Program. She is ending her term on the NWA Board of Directors after serving two years as the Nutrition Services Section (NSS) representative for the Southeast Region and Co-Chair of the section for the past year and a half. Prior to her role as Kentucky Nutrition Coordinator, Nicole worked in the WIC Program at the local agency level, serving as a WIC Nutritionist for 7 years, and a local agency WIC Director for 5 years. Nicole believes that “serving on this committee would be an opportunity to help to ensure strong leaders for the Association who can work towards NWA’s vision of a nation of healthier women, children, and their families.” Christine O’Brien, LD, Local Agency Section Representative Christine O'Brien has been with the WIC Program for over 30 years as the Coordinator of a smaller, local agency. In the past 10 years, she has served on the NWA Board of Directors as the Mountain Plains Local Agency Representative, the Local Agency Section Chair and recently served as the Board Secretary for four years. She has also served on the Legislative Committee for several years. She says, "It was and is an honor and privilege to be involved with our Association!" The Voting Members also voted on the proposed NWA Bylaw changes. • NWA 2015 Proposed Bylaw Changes • NWA Bylaw Changes Rationale Share Your WIC Stories! On September 17, 2015 the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will markup the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. Leading up to the markup, NWA is collecting stories from WIC participants, service providers and anyone else who has been impacted by WIC. We had a webinar on August 3rd that you can listen to or review the slides for more information. You can share your story with us online, or print a postcard (for participants or for staff) and mail it to Hannah Shultz at: National WIC Association 2001 S Street NW Suite 580 Washington, DC 20009 One side of the post card can be colored if you wish. Before sending, write your city and state on the Greetings line and fill in your elected officials (if you don't know who they are, here is a handy tool). All post cards should be postmarked by August 21, 2015. Study: WIC Participation and Costs are Stable The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has a new report showing WIC participation and costs have remained steady and are near pre-recession levels. According to the report, WIC participation follows poverty and birth trends; participation increased during the recession but has gone down since. Delaware Hospitals to Stop Giving Free Formula Delaware hospitals will no longer give free infant formula to mothers when they are discharged after giving birth. Formula will still be available in the hospital for moms who have trouble breastfeeding, but it will not be a part of the free bag they receive when they leave the hospital. Community Partnerships for Healthy Mothers and Children A local TV station interviewed Ayan Ibrahim of the Gaithersburg Health Center, a sub-recipient of the Community Partnerships for Healthy Mothers and Children grant. Fast forward to 19 minutes to hear how the organization is working on a referral process to facilitate warm hand offs to other health services. Reforms of Social Service Partnerships Last week, the White House announced common-ground reforms "that strengthen the partnerships the federal government forms with faith-based and community organizations for the purpose of serving people in need." Nine federal agencies have now issued notices of proposed rulemaking to clarify and add to the protections social service agencies have. Open Comment Period: Promise Zones Third Round Application Process Promise Zones are high poverty areas where the federal government works with local leaders to work toward priorities identified by the community as well as other stated objectives. Until September 28, 2015, stakeholders are invited to submit comments about the selection process. More information is available here. Correction to Illinois Story The Illinois state government has had limited operations because of a failure of the state legislature and the governor to agree on a budget for over a month. While WIC food dollars are being distributed, NSA money is held up. Local government sponsored agencies continue to operate. Two non-profit agencies have closed. At the encouragement of NWA, USDA has actively sought to negotiate a remedy for the NSA shortfall. Margaret Saunders, Director of CEDA WIC in Cook county and former NWA Board Chair, has been active in the media talking about the situation as it impacts the non-profit CEDA WIC Agency: ABC 7 Chicago, CBS Local Chicago, Chicago Tribune, WGN, Telemundo Chicago, Univision. Volunteer Opportunities View our current openings in NWA’s Committees and Task Forces! Participating helps you grow professionally, build lasting, networking relationships with your peers, and shape important policies for the future of WIC and WIC moms and young children. We welcome your participation. If you have a particular interest or expertise and wish to volunteer, please contact your NWA Board Representative or Robert A. Lee at rlee@nwica.org/202-232-5492. Career Corner Current Postings are also available on our WIC Job Postings page. • WIC EBT Project Manager, WA • WIC State Supervisor/Breastfeeding Coordinator, WY • WIC Coordinator/Nutrition Supervisor, CA Congressional Schedule Both houses of Congress are on recess until September 8. NWA Calendar 2015 Biennial Technology and Program Integrity Education & Networking Conference and Exhibits at the Renaissance Grand Hotel located in downtown St. Louis, MO. NWA's mission: NWA inspires and empowers the WIC community to advocate for and promote quality nutrition services for all eligible mothers and young children, and assure effective management of WIC. National WIC Association 2001 S Street, NW, Suite 580 Washington, DC 20009 TEL 202.232.5492 FAX 202.387.5281