How to Use GENIE

Funded by ConAgra Foods Foundation

GENIE has several uses:

1. GENIE can be used to help you develop a new nutrition education program. Try to incorporate as many of the nine GENIE categories and 35 quality criteria into your plan.
2. Use the GENIE checklist as a self-assessment quality assurance or quality improvement tool for a current nutrition education program.
3. Identify the GENIE categories that you want to learn more about, and watch the videos and tutorials on those topics, as well as accessing the Additional Resources PDF, all located in the Videos and Resource Kit tab.
4. Funders can use the GENIE checklist as a way to compare and score a number of proposals and use to guide funding decisions.

If this will be your first time using GENIE, we strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with this self-assessment tool; watch the "How to Use GENIE" and "GENIE Sample Proposals" videos; download the sample proposals and scoring benchmarks below; and visit the Videos and Resources Kit tab for additional instructional videos, tutorials, and resources to help you make the most of GENIE.

PDF Note: You will need Adobe Reader to view these files. A free download is available from http://get.adobe.com/reader. To skip to a specific category or term, you can search within the PDF files using the function CTRL+F.

Introductions and Scoring

GENIE is set up in a checklist format consisting of nine categories with various quality criteria within each category. Simply mark "yes" if the criterion is present in your program or "no" if it is not present. All GENIE criteria in each category require a response. The "information" icon provides definitions to explain potentially unfamiliar concepts or terms. After completing the GENIE checklist, click 'Submit responses' located at the bottom of the page to receive your score and feedback.

Your score is based on how many quality criteria you marked as present. Each "yes" answer is assigned 1 point; each 'no' response is assigned 0 points. The maximum possible score which you can receive, if all the quality criteria are present, is 35. Individual categories are given their own score based on the number of criteria marked as present. Feedback is provided for each category. Match your category score to the related feedback to identify your program's strengths and areas to enhance. Even if you achieve higher scores for most of GENIE's categories, consider reviewing the tips associated with lower category scores to strengthen your program plan or proposal. You can print the feedback page, email it to yourself for future reference or save it in PDF format. You can complete GENIE as often as you'd like to assess your program.

To learn more about how GENIE can work for you, including a detailed description of each of GENIE's nine categories, visit the GENIE Video and Resource Kit.