Non Technical Summary
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) plays a vital role in the health and nutrition of eligible low-income individuals. When given a choice, minoritized patients prefer health care providers who share their racial and ethnic identity. One strategy to increase WIC effectiveness is diversifying the WIC workforce. Yet, the disaggregation of information on training/scholarships for WIC careers is an impediment to understand the alignment between education/training programs, trainees and WIC agencies. There is minimal research on scholarships/training for underrepresented trainees or individuals currently employed in WIC and seeking career advancemnet. This project aims to address the recruitment and retention issues in the WIC workforce as well as the lack of diversity among WIC staff by utilizing the EPIS (Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment) framework, a comprehensive model used to guide research and practice in the implementation of programs and interventions. The proposed implementation research focuses on identifying, assessing, recommending and piloting effective scholarships and funding programs, particularly those targeting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals for careers and career advancementin WIC and related fields. To achieve these objectives, the project will convene stakeholders using a Delphi Process which will inform the design and engineering of web scrapers to efficiently find and collate decentralized information related to scholarships/funding programs to support training/ credentialing of WIC staff. This information will be used to populate the NutriScholar online clearinghouse, a central resource scholarship/funding programs to support training/ credentialing of WIC staff, as well as train a NutriScholar chatbot to assist users in finding the information and learning about WIC career routes. A scholarship model based on best practices will be piloted. This implementation project aligns with the National WIC Workforce Strategy Recommendation 2: Develop long-term learning opportunities for frontline staff, supervisors, and managers which states that a "talented workforce should be hired from the populations WIC serves, but they must be supported by managers and supervisors skilled in workforce affirming practices for a culturally diverse workforce."

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
703	6050	1010	100%

Knowledge Area
703 - Nutrition Education and Behavior;

Subject Of Investigation
6050 - Communities, areas, and regions;

Field Of Science
1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;

Goals / Objectives
The major goal of this implementation project is to enhance the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) of the workforce supporting the WIC program. The project aims to address the recruitment and retention issues in the WIC workforce, as well as the lack of diversity among WIC staff by utilizing the EPIS (Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment) framework, a comprehensive model used to guide research and practice in the implementation of programs and interventions. The project focuses on identifying, assessing, recommending and piloting effective scholarships and funding programs, particularly those targeting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals for careers and career advancement in WIC and related fields.To achieve this goal, the following objectives will be met:Identify and disseminate scholarship/funding opportunities and areas of study for BIPOC students and current WIC professionals to have impactful WIC careers.Evaluate the existing scholarship/funding opportunities to determine potential strategies to reach and engage BIPOC students or trainees (including current WIC professionals seeking career advancement).Pilot test strategies identified in the evaluation (Objective 2) to prepare students and WIC professionals for impactful careers, ensuring that the WIC workforce is well-equipped to serve diverse communities

Project Methods
This project seeks to research and document scholarship/funding programs that currently prepare students and WIC professionals for prospective WIC careers and career advancement within WIC. The project utilizes the EPIS (Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment) framework, a comprehensive model used to guide research and practice in the implementation of programs and interventions. The proposed implementation research focuses on identifying, assessing, recommending and piloting effective scholarships and funding programs, particularly those targeting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals for careers and career advancement in WIC and related fields. To achieve these objectives, the project will convene stakeholders using a Delphi Process which will inform the design and engineering of web scrapers to efficiently find and collate decentralized information related to scholarships/funding programs to support training/ credentialing of WIC staff. This information will be used to populate the NutriScholar online clearinghouse, a central resource scholarship/funding programs to support training/ credentialing of WIC staff, as well as train a NutriScholar chatbot to assist users in finding the information and learning about WIC career routes. A scholarship model based on best practices will be piloted.