“We’re trying to empower income- challenged families to minimize the barriers to healthy eating and lifestyles,” says Valerie Duffy, PhD RD, principal investigator or co-principal investigator on the projects, and Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Allied Health Sciences. “We’re working with stakeholders to determine what modes of communication are best for them, and how to close the gap between what the families are doing, and what behav- iors would be better.” Currently there are three funding sources supporting the initiatives of the team. The first is a grant from the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut on preventing obesity in early childhood by offering parents who are economically disadvantaged simple and feasible feeding practices to develop healthier food preferences for their children. Duffy and Jennifer Harris, PhD, MBA from Allied Health Sciences and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity are the co-PIs. Other team members are from Allied Health Sciences, the Rudd Center, the Department of Nutritional Sciences, the Department of Communication, and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. The community partner is East Hartford Family Resource Center. “We have a collaborative team that’s trying to develop simple messages for families to help them establish healthy eating behaviors in toddlers. We hope to make messages that are tailored to families so they are more meaningful,” says Duffy. Hatch funding from the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station, also in UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, funds tailored messages for health promotion and obesity prevention using e-health and m-health. The inter-disciplinary team is also on this project, with many of the same team members. Three con- nected studies will harness technology to deliver individualized nutrition and health messages to middle school students, adolescents, and young adults to improve diet quality for obesity pre- vention. Community partners include Windsor Public Schools and UConn Student Health Services. The SNAP-Ed program, funded by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is SNAP-Ed Program Communicating Towards Improved Health & Nutrition Obesity is increasingly affecting residents of Connecticut. Recent statis- tics report that 20% of children and 36% of young adults are afflicted by obesity1 . A team of Extension educators, faculty, and graduate stu- dents in Allied Health Sciences are working with community partners to take a multi-faceted approach to addressing health and nutrition issues in schools and families through research and outreach. (Above) Heidi Karner, RD, (right), a graduate student in the Allied Health Science program at a Windsor School Breakfast event. (Below) Lindsey Fenn, RD, works with children in East Hartford during a nutrition program. 14 2018 HIGHLIGHTS OF EXTENSION