Asset Framing and Ethical Storytelling as Tools to Empower Communities and Reduce Stigma: An Examination of Virginia SNAP-Ed Reporting Practices

Background: Federally funded nutrition education programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed), produce annual reports on program impacts and outcomes. Some reports have traditionally used a “deficit frame,” which potentially stigmatizes participants. On the other hand, asset framing and ethical storytelling practices can empower communities and partners and reduce stigma. The purpose of this project was to determine how the language used in the 2022 Virginia SNAP-Ed annual report for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) aligns with ethical storytelling and asset-framing practices. In addition, the purpose was to outline strategies for more empowering reporting practices that rely on asset framing and ethical storytelling practices instead of a deficit frame. Method: Content coding was used to identify instances of asset- and deficit-based framing. Codes were developed from a toolkit on asset framing and ethical storytelling. The annual report was coded by one researcher and reviewed by a second. Results: Instances of deficit- and asset-framing and ethical storytelling were low. Only seven instances of stigmatizing language were identified. One was “low-income families,” and the other six were instances where “SNAP-eligible” was used to describe a group of people. Both are examples of presenting challenges as personal characteristics. The majority of the language was neutral and did not stigmatize or empower program participants. Conclusions: Overall, the report did not frequently utilize deficit framing. However, asset-framing practices were also not explicitly used. The authors propose multiple strategies to develop more empowering reporting practices, including implementing an asset frame to emphasize participants’ contributions and strengths and employing ethical storytelling practices to center community voices.