Tobacco Prevention for K-12th Graders: Equals Results

Tobacco Prevention for K-12th Graders:  Equals Results

Audience: This workshop would be useful for teachers, school nurses, community leaders, and any mentor who works in prevention at a local or statewide level. This workshop provides a systemic approach to reducing tobacco initiation to youth.

Key Points: The Partnerships' programs have reached over 704,449 youth.  Research taught us that a behavioral change must involve multiple points of involvement from youth.  Tobacco prevention programs and messages must be everywhere kids are – at school, in the community, at church and in the home.

The Reject All Tobacco messages are tailored for youth in grades K-6^th reaching the Age of Reason group.  Messages are direct because of the age groups' tendencies to teach what they know to their peers, parents, siblings and others.  RAT encourages youth to “teach up” about the dangers of tobacco.

The Age of Rebellion's messages are quite different. Generation FREE reaches youth (7-12^th grades) who want to be treated as adults and tend to rebel against authority. Youth have a voice and can make changes.

Educational Experience: Lessons learned from implementing this program for over 10 years will be discussed. Participants can have samples and ideas to implement in their communities.

Benefits: With consistent messaging, our two tobacco prevention programs have proven results. According to the 2010 YTS, current smoking rate for public middle students is 5.7% down from 20.6% in 1998.  Participants attending this session will identify and recognize different ways to reach youth in K^th-12^th grades with layering of messages.