In 2001, the UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program developed a seven-lesson, learning-through-dialogue, bi-lingual, adult EFNEP curriculum to address: decreased enrollment, graduation decline, and Dietary Guideline changes. The new curriculum, Choices: Steps toward Health incorporated adult learning theories, physical activity, food prep/tasting, goal setting, and teaching tools for educators. In 2005, Choices: Steps Toward Health received the Northeast Extension Directors’ Award of Excellence.
After sixteen years of educating over 22,500 EFNEP participants in Massachusetts and making significant revisions to content, Choices needed a new look. The participant materials needed to compete in an environment that dazzled with full color images and flashy graphics. Choices was redesigned with input from our statewide EFNEP taskforce. We conducted on-site trainings during the curriculum rebranding roll-out. The new look and focused content was well received by educators and participants.
In 2018, we consulted an English as a Second Language Specialist to adapt the curriculum and extend our recruitment into the ESOL community. The lesson booklets, educator’s guide and ESOL vocabulary picture posters were revised for this new audience.
This poster presentation is a visual documentation of our journey for staying relevant over nineteen years while addressing retention and recruitment of adult EFNEP learners in Massachusetts.
"Lynne Ivers Thompson, MS NEP Design and Marketing Director, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Lynn Beattie, MPH, LDN, CLC, Materials, Evaluation and Training Manager, University of Massachusetts Amherst"
