2025 National EFNEP Coordinators' Conference

Do you have specific questions about WebNEERS?  Bring your laptop and join us for breakfast so that we can help! Beta team members will be available for questions, troubleshooting or individual consultations with WebNEERS during this breakfast session!

The ‘Breakfast with Beta – Institution Level Users’ provides an opportunity for one-on-one and small group discussions with a WebNEERS Beta Team member to address individual concerns regarding the utilization and functionality of WebNEERS at the Institute level. The topics of conversation may be but are not limited to: Starting a New Program Year, Updating Institution Level Users, Updating Permissions, Creating Subgroups, Filters, Questions/Question Sets, Reviewing Data, and Maximizing WebNEERS to meet State-level needs.

Attendees should bring their laptop and be prepared to explore the system – real time!

Innovations in EFNEP-Related Research: Updates from the NC3169 Multistate Research Group: Research and evaluation have been critical components of EFNEP since the program’s beginning in 1969. Over the past sixteen years, the NC3169 Agricultural Experiment Station Multistate Research Group (EFNEP-Related Research, Program Evaluation, and Outreach) has worked to conduct research, informed by EFNEP program needs, to improve the quality and scientific rigor of the program’s delivery and evaluation. This session will provide updates on four studies recently conducted by NC3169: (1) a review of diet recall methodology and technical and training needs to inform best practices of diet recalls across all EFNEP programs, (2) the development and validation of an EFNEP quality of life scale for participants and peer educators, (3) a qualitative analysis of barriers faced by peer educators when providing physical activity education as part of EFNEP lessons, and (4) a pilot study investigating the validity of retrospective evaluation, versus standard pre-post evaluation, of the EFNEP Adult Questionnaire. High-level updates from each of these four studies will be shared, as well as opportunities for EFNEP programs to get involved with study recruitment and data collection for these and other projects. Moreover, a discussion of how EFNEP coordinators and other state staff can join NC3169 will be had.

In May 2024, in a joint partnership with USDA-NIFA and the CDC, the Extension Foundation funded 33 EFNEP programs across the country with over $2 million to promote the BRIDGE Access Program, focused on building awareness of eligibility and access to a free COVID-19 vaccine, as well as ongoing adult vaccine education. In addition to promoting the program in adult EFNEP classes with Power Point presentations and recipe cards and at health fairs, programs also used a variety of outlets including social media, Hispanic newspapers, church bulletins and bus marketing techniques. Assets from other institutions were also available to use and adapt. Some of these assets will be shared during the presentation.

Some of the successes reported to-date include increasing EFNEP educators’ knowledge of other health issues, access to additional professional development and resources, showcasing EFNEP community partnerships and community trust, offsetting some costs from the EFNEP budget, and increasing the variety of how different health promotion topics are marketed. Challenges included working with individual institutions’ differing research offices, Covid-19 vaccination hesitancy, and having to pivot earlier than anticipated to a general Adult Immunization Education initiative. With a reach of over 2 million in the first quarter alone, these types of partnerships have a great opportunity to get important health messages to those most in need while showcasing the community-based network throughout the nation via our land-grant institutions.

In the fall of 2022, Texas A&M EFNEP began working on adapting the 24-Hour Dietary Recall training materials from Oklahoma State University to provide training that more accurately reflects the unique needs of educators and participants when dietary recalls are collected in group settings.   Over the course of 2022 and 2023, Texas EFNEP worked with the Texas A&M Educational Development and Engagement department to create a training video, facilitator guide, and trainee workbook.  In the summer of 2024, all Texas EFNEP and Prairie View EFNEP paraprofessional staff received a complete re-training of dietary recall collection using these newly created materials.  
During this presentation, we will discuss the process of creating the training video, dive deep into the structure of the food recall training and share examples of what participants will learn in the training.

Participants will learn:
- The primary adaptations done in the training from one-on-one food recalls to group food recalls
- Best practices for training EFNEP paraprofessionals in group food recalls
- View snapshots of the training to get a better idea of what to expect

EFNEP National Conference attendees will be able to register to attend the train-the-trainer conference in Texas during the summer of 2025. At this conference, participants will receive digital copies of the training video, facilitator guide, and participant workbook and gain hands-on experience on best practices and guidelines for implementing the materials with paraprofessional staff.