WIC Special Project Grants

Fiscal Year 2002

Background

FNS awards WIC Special Project Grants to be used for "special State projects of regional or national significance to improve the services of the program." In order to meet the statutory objectives, Special Projects need to address issues of critical and timely importance to the WIC program. Furthermore, it is important that projects do not operate in isolation and that the results of the projects are widely disseminated to other State Agencies.

FNS is using the same model as FY 2001 for the WIC Special Project Grants that combines elements of the various approaches that have been used over the years. The model designates a specific focus area for the grants with a range of possible projects. The grants will be awarded as cooperative agreements. State agencies awarded funding will interact with FNS staff on a regular basis to share project information. WIC is especially interested in projects that develop resources/tools that are replicable by other states, or projects that utilize the WIC Works Resource System to disseminate information/resources. Extensive dissemination of project results is expected so that other State Agencies will have the opportunity to replicate the project and/or learn from its results. 

In addition to the full grant awards for FY 2002, concept paper funding, begun in FY 1999, will continue to be available. Concept paper funding for FY 2001 will be used to develop a concept paper into a full grant proposal for the FY 2002 solicitation.

The theme for the FY 2002 WIC Special Project Grants and the FY 2001 Concept Papers is "Revitalizing Quality Nutrition Services in WIC."

Timeline

Critical dates for the FY 2002 WIC Special Project Grants are as follows:

FY 2002 WIC Special Project Grant Application Package

• Application Package Cover Letter

• Full Grant Application

• Concept Paper Grant Application

WIC Special Project Grant Evaluation Resources

The following guides are provided to assist WIC State Agencies in developing the evaluation component of their proposals:

WIC Special Project Grants Evaluation Technical Assistance Guide: This guide was developed by KRA corporation in 1996 to assist WIC develop evaluation plans for their WIC Special Project Grant applications. The guide was designed to supplement the WIC Evaluation Resource Guide.

WIC Evaluation Resource Guide: This guide was developed by FNS staff in 1991 and is a more general WIC evaluation guide.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Lisa Johnson, Grants Management Division, via email at lisa.johnson@fns.usda.gov.

Last modified: 05/22/2009