The National WIC Association (NWA) is thrilled to announce the formation of the WIC Technology Resource Group, a resource and learning partnership between NWA and Nava, a government technology consultancy and public benefit corporation focused on building simple, accessible government services (Nava PBC), and with contributions from Code for America, which works with government to make the delivery of public services equitable with technology. This partnership will serve as a knowledge sharing group aligned in our vision of using technology to improve the accessibility of WIC services and enhance the WIC participant experience. We’ll share what we know and what we learn across the larger WIC community, allowing agencies to leverage the tools and learnings we offer alongside their own deep expertise to meet their constituents’ needs.
We formed this partnership building off of the momentum of NWA’s 2021 Technology Conference, where Nava PBC and Code for America hosted a pre-conference workshop outlining basic principles of human-centered, agile technology practices. These organizations also offered recommendations on streamlining WIC certification through a remote process, pulling from findings in the enrollment landscape report authored by NWA and Nava PBC this year.
This guidance comes at a particularly urgent moment as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to reveal the need for digital-first options that meet WIC clients where they are. This context, under which the Food and Nutrition Service received $390 million for WIC modernization as part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act, makes the formation of this partnership even more timely.
The WIC Technology Resource Group will serve primarily as a resource for the larger WIC community. We’ll offer access to a catalogue of guidance and tools to build human-centered, agile, data-driven systems, as well as proof of concept projects that show what's possible when putting modern principles and practices into action. The resource collection can be found on NWA’s WIC Hub, a central location where WIC staff, researchers, and advocates can easily find WIC-related resources and information.
If you’re interested in learning more about the WIC Technology Resource Group, please contact info@nwica.org.