BACKGROUND:
Washington State WIC and Immunization Programs began collaborating in 1996. Since that time their collaboration efforts have incorporated a number of different processes and activities to further their linkage goal of "Healthier Children in Washington State".

OBJECTIVE:
To describe the various components of culture, collaboration and commitment and the role each plays in the success of cross program collaboration.

METHOD:
This collaboration has incorporated many activities/strategies to enhance the breadth and depth of WIC/Immunization linkage in Washington State. These include a Statewide WIC/IZ Planning Workgroup, Department of Health Internal Planning Workgroup, projects to populate the CHILD Profile Immunization Registry, conference exhibits/presentations and outside consultant work.

RESULT:
The Statewide Planning Workgroup developed a 3-5 year strategic plan that outlined a variety of activities to guide linkage activities from 2002-2006. From this plan, staff developed the WIC Immunization Record Round-Up Project, the process for developing a linkage between the WIC and CHILD Profile Immunization Registry databases, consultant analysis report and a number of other innovative, creative ways to promote this vital cross program work.

CONCLUSION:
Successful WIC/Immunization linkage involves the 3 C's: acknowledgement of the importance of individual program CULTURE, COLLABORATION activities on a variety of state and local levels and COMMITMENT to the process from the top to the bottom.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
-Describe the importance of understanding program culture when doing cross program collaboration.
-Describe one way the immunization registry benefits from WIC/Immunization linkage.
-Describe the importance of commitment when doing cross program collaboration.