The Las Vegas Urban League Nutrition Education Centers WIC (Women, Infants and Children Program) greatly expanded its community presence and services in 2020, proving once again that it stands ready to accommodate all families and individuals coping with the ongoing coronavirus global pandemic.
Early in the year WIC debuted its newly redesigned website, www.wiclv.org, highlighting its many services and special supplemental nutritional programs for mothers and fathers.
Featured prominently on the new website is the Nutritional Education Team, which provides nutritional education to parents to aid them making better choices and lead healthier lifestyles. Clinic coordinators, for example, provide free customer service and assistance that includes monitoring gestational age and birth weights of infants.
WIC’s Breastfeeding Program educates parents on the benefits of mother’s milk and provides essential information on a variety of breast pumps on the market, how to store breast milk and methods to acquire special-needs bottles and other transitional feeding tools on the commercial market.
Social media links that include Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are highlighted on the new website where clients can go for up-to-date changes and additions to WIC’s programs, as well as breaking news beneficial to new parents.
“As we enter winter months and positive cases of COVID-19 unfortunately continue to rise, it’s very important that everyone also stays positive and attentive in our fight against this deadly virus,” Andrea Fleming, Director Human Resources at the Urban League, said. “We have many programs and services at no cost to help individuals cope and survive this pandemic.”
These important resources are currently available through our Nutrition Education Centers – WIC, Early Childhood Connection and Entrepreneur Center:
Nevada 211, a program of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, is committed to helping Nevadans connect with services covering food supplies, prescription medications, medical supplies, emergency financial assistance and much more. Go to: www.Nevada211.org for more information.
NDHHS also has a Suicide Prevention Resource Center with counselors standing by to assist individuals experiencing mental health issues from the pressures of the pandemic.
The Nevada Youth Suicide Prevention Program utilizes the management and leadership of the following important groups: an administrative committee consisting of representatives from the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention, various state agencies, the statewide Behavior Health Consortium; and three locally driven and very active children’s mental health consortia consisting of parents, child welfare services, mental health professionals, school personnel and sub grantees.
The Office of Suicide Prevention and local consortia will work together to build upon existing infrastructure where suicide prevention is a key element. For more information, contact: Misty Vaughan Allen, MA, suicide prevention coordinator, Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, BHS- Office of Suicide Prevention, 4150 Technology Way, Suite 101,Carson City, NV 89706.
Phone: 775-684-2236 or email: mvallen@health.nv.gov.
Nevadans can also go to: https://www.opencounseling.com/crisis-lines/nevada/las-vegas if you are experiencing any types of crisis such as thoughts of suicide, veterans undergoing emotional stress, fears of rape or domestic violence, sexual abuse and much more. Counselors are available if you need someone to talk to about any emotional issues.
Food Delivery Program
Gov. Steve Sisolak recently earmarked $3.1 million for emergency food delivery services to all Nevada WIC families through Dec. 31, 2020. In Clark County, Three Square Food Bank has partnered with WIC to deliver food items to homes of qualified WIC families.
WIC recipients are encouraged to immediately call the Urban League’s two WIC offices to apply and make arrangements for home deliveries of food items.
The Urban League was in the forefront in issuing guidelines to stay safe during the recent November 3, 2020, General Election by prominently displaying and promoting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines on its website. These included, in part, wearing a mask, washing hands before entering and leaving a polling place, using a minimum of 60 percent alcohol-based hand sanitizers while at a polling location and maintaining at least 6 feet of distance between others.
With President-Elect Joe Biden taking office January 20, 2021, the war against COVID-19 is expected to kick into high gear. Biden has assembled a taskforce of prominent disease experts and tacticians to confront the virus on a federally sponsored national level, while we wait for vaccines expected to become available for healthcare workers and individuals at high risk by the end of the year and the general public sometime during the first quarter of 2021.
For now, it’s important to stay positive, keep vigilant of the needs and mental states of loved ones and friends, wear a mask in public, maintain a distance of at least 6 feet between others, avoid large crowds and extended family gatherings, avoid going out into public places unless necessary and if you haven’t already, get a flu shot.
Continue to follow CDC guidelines by going to: www.CDC.gov and visit the Las Vegas Urban League WIC website for up-to-date local information and resources.
The Las Vegas Urban League Women, Infants and Children Program and Early childhood Connection is a 501c (3) program that is funded by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health.
For more information about the program and employment opportunities, visit the Urban League WIC website at: www.wiclv.org or their two convenient locations: 6480 W. Flamingo Road, Suite B, Las Vegas, phone (702) 227-1573 or 3320 E. Flamingo Road, Suite 50, Las Vegas, phone (702) 476-9561.
