Educational Message Services, Inc Alessandro Drive. Suite 100, Ventura CA USA Phone:

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1 Currently supporting Texting Programs for WICs in CA: Santa Barbara County BFED Santa Cruz County Alameda County San Luis Obispo County Other States Louisiana Ohio North Carolina Colorado Idaho! *The Santa Barbara BFED Project was highlighted March 20, 2013 at the National WIC Association webinar: Texting for WIC Peer Counselors *Educational texts were developed and approved by WIC for two primary groups: Prenatal and Postnatal moms

2 ! n n WIC Santa Barbara County Text Program has enjoyed a nearly 100% participation rate. To date, only 8 participants have opted out (838 completed their education and remain enrolled for ongoing texts from WIC peer counselors) Young moms are texting more than any other group, with particularly high rates among low-income minorities. *Information on texting in public health is available on the CDC website, go to:

3 System Security! The Text Program website supports https secure socket layer (ssl)* and contains the text message response interface. Staff log in for each session with a username and password, similar to a Netflix or Google account. All data resides on an EMS server at a Co-lo to ensure availability, access, and security. Absolutely no software or information (e.g. unique identifiers, or text message content) is downloaded onto staff computers. *Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 1064-bit encryption is the process of encoding information in such a way that the entity or computer with the key can decode it, or taking all the data that one computer is sending to another and encoding the data into a form that only the receiving computer will be able to decode. User privilege acceptance and consent authentication process will rely on username, password and verified data sources.! Educational Message Services, Inc Alessandro Drive. Suite 100, Ventura CA USA Phone:

4 ! EMS Supports Setup and Training Web-based Group Session (1 hour) Spot training, individual training with each responder, as needed (30 min) A Quick Start Guide will be provided with each log in Note: The Text Program was designed to be highly intuitive. Most staff are fully trained and using the service competently after completing web-based group session

5 EMS provides texting solutions for public health and safety and has worked with Santa Barbara County WIC over the past several years to provide a multilingual texting solution for new moms and pregnant women in SB county. Breastfeeding and nutrition education is provided as weekly, fully-automated messages, triggered at the point of opt-in Prenatal and postnatal tracks in English and Spanish Education is based on WIC approved content and can be customized to meet the needs of multiple priority groups, languages with varying needs.

6 Beyond Peer Counseling: WICs are using the service to send group texts to moms who missed their appointments. When Santa Cruz County also implemented the text program for missed appointments moms that were never answering their phone, texted us back right away to set a new time. Additionally, WICs are using the service for their general WIC populations as a way to inform them about changes in services and maintain communication with their caseloads. WIC moms that aren t currently pregnant or no longer breastfeeding can receive information according to a group, or individually, and benefit from the two-way texting. We use the Text Program for anyone in our caseload who would rather get texts from us than phone calls. Colorado WIC The service is also being used as an outreach tool to increase dwindling caseloads. Include the call to action on brochures, pamphlets, websites to encourage prospective families to text for more information about WIC. Once enrolled, mom can be moved to an education track or a chat line for general information about WIC services.

7 Per National WIC guidelines the definition of an education contact requires that the recipient be able to reply to messages and receive live one-on-one feedback in the form of either face-to-face, phone, IM or Text. Sending one-way messages that do not enable bidirectional live feedback (at the end user s request) cannot be considered an education contact. See The WIC Works Resource System (USDA collaboration) Two-way texting enables mom to ask specific questions by simply replying to one of the education texts. Staff are alerted when there s a new question in the queue. They can send a response at their convenience, during regular office hours. Peer Counselors can engage any participant in conversations for scheduling appointments, requesting information or obtaining feedback regarding the program. Texting is taking the place of a telephone voice call.

8 The Text Program enables WICs to develop fully automated surveys in order to obtain participant feedback. Surveys can be delayed or set to start after the last education message is delivered. Polling is completed through group-wide, scheduled messages or as pre-fabricated messages staggered throughout the education track. When Cabarrus WIC in North Carolina sent out a brief survey regarding the texting program, they received a 90% response rate. We really enjoy being able to text everyone at one time, but then also communicate with clients one-on-one whenever we need to.

9 Would you like to participate? Text MYWIC to MYWIC should be all one word. Caps are not necessary.

10 Phone: Cell: or Text: Text mywic to For questions about the Santa Barbara BFED Text Program: Meg Beard MPH, MCHES, RD, IBCLC Santa Barbara County Public Health Department Nutrition Services Breastfeeding Program / WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator & HIV Nutrition Advocate (805) meg.beard@sbcphd.org *When you text mywic to you will receive a series of 5 messages used during in the Santa Barbara BFED Prenatal track. At your election, someone will follow-up with you by text to gather more info and answer any questions you have!