Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


An In-Home WIC Visiting Nurse program is being launched in Livingston County.

At a recent meeting, the Livingston County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution authorizing an agreement to support an In-Home WIC Visiting Nurse program through the Health Department.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services provided an opportunity for local grant funding through a Region 9 Perinatal Collaborative to address local needs and provide care and support for families in the region to improve healthy births and infant care.

The Livingston County Health Department submitted a grant request to implement an In-Home WIC Visiting Nurse Program. The initiative is designed to address the transportation insecurities faced by many in the Department’s Women, Infants, and Children or WIC Program to ensure they receive essential services despite barriers to in-person attendance.

The Department was awarded grant funding of $20,000 to support the initiative. The grant term is from February 1st to September 30th, with no required local matching funds.

Health Department Director Matt Bolang told the board the grant and program will help support families that have difficulty getting to their offices for WIC services to make sure they have the right nutritional needs and other support for healthy children. No new positions will be created and the target is primarily clients with newborns. Bolang noted the majority of it will be staff time with two nurses and a clerk visiting the homes of those who can’t make it in and might have transportation difficulties or might have many children at home making it difficult to get out to receive services.

Bolang said numbers have been gradually increasing and they’ve been getting around 50 to 100 new clients each year, over roughly the past five years.

The In-Home WIC Visiting Nurse program is said to align with the Department’s mission to provide comprehensive and accessible healthcare services to the residents of Livingston County. The approved resolution states the funding will contribute significantly to overcoming identified barriers and ensuring that all eligible individuals can benefit from the WIC program.

Additionally, the Health Department was awarded a separate grant totaling $15,000 to implement a Breast-Feeding Supply Stock Initiative. That initiative is designed to address the lack of availability of breast-feeding supplies faced by many of the department’s WIC clients, ensuring that they receive essential access to supplies despite economic barriers.