UND awarded $1.5M grant to lead national WIC substance-use training
UND experts will train WIC staff nationwide on preventing pre- and post-natal substance use
The University of North Dakota’s College of Nursing & Professional Disciplines and College of Education & Human Development have been awarded a $1.5 million Substance Use Prevention Education grant from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children through the USDA Food and Nutrition Service to enhance perinatal substance use prevention education for WIC staff across the country. (In medicine, “substance use” is a broad term that encompasses all forms and frequencies of using harmful substances.)
The three-year cooperative agreement, running through September 2027, will enable UND to lead a national effort to train WIC staff on best practices in addressing substance use prevention and providing referrals for WIC participants. The UND team also will revise the “Substance Use Prevention Screening, Education and Referral Resource Guide” for local WIC agencies.
Maridee Shogren, clinical professor and dean of the CNPD, and Rachel Navarro, professor of counseling psychology in CEHD, will serve as principal investigators on the grant. They will lead a multidisciplinary UND team that includes experts in nursing, social work, nutrition and dietetics, counseling psychology and education.
“We greatly appreciate that the USDA FNS recognizes the importance of this work and the confidence they have shown in UND to provide these training efforts across our nation,” Shogren and Navarro said in a joint statement.
“Our entire team is dedicated to improving care for families impacted by substance use. Our goals will focus on prevention of perinatal substance use, increasing awareness about perinatal mental health concerns and promoting healthy lifestyles. We can’t wait to get to work.”
The program will build on the existing collaborative relationship between UND and USDA FNS, which started in 2020 with the Don’t Quit the Quit program, a support program for pregnant and postpartum people in recovery from opioid use disorder led by Shogren and funded by the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts.
Over three years, DQTQ WIC training became highly sought after across the state and region. Numerous perinatal substance use education requests led to further collaborations with UND’s Mountain Plains Addiction Technology Transfer Center and the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, both funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and training efforts continued to expand beyond North Dakota.
The new collaboration will follow a similar model. Shogren and Navarro will lead the UND team in working with FNS national and regional offices to identify challenges, gaps in knowledge and critical issues faced by WIC staff nationwide using surveys, focus groups and feedback from WIC agencies.
The team then will develop multiday interactive training events based on the information gathered across all seven FNS regions. During these events, WIC staff will train directly with experts in various substance-use-related topics. The training will use a “train-the-trainer” model, which will broaden the dissemination of substance use education to WIC colleagues in all seven FNS regions.
In addition, the UND team will create self-study materials for WIC staff in the form of interactive online videos addressing topics such as stigma, brief interventions and effective communication. They also will generate educational materials to assist WIC staff and members of their communities.
Shogren and Navarro believe that the “train-the-trainer” events combined with supplemental training materials will provide WIC staff and communities with essential knowledge to address perinatal substance use and tools to educate staff and communities now and in the future.
