Winning the battle: strategies for youth tobacco prevention
There will always be a need for outreach in schools about tobacco prevention. There is also a need for youth help and support to reach their peers in schools in our county.
West Liberty-Salem is a K-12 school within Champaign County, Ohio. The school has around 100 students per grade level to educate, engage, and inspire about tobacco and vaping prevention. There is little to no knowledge about the consequences of vaping and smoking within the school regarding what the laws are or what resources there are to help students or someone they know that needs help to quit.
Trisha Foster, program coordinator at the Champaign County Health District, reached out to West Liberty-Salem school district and spoke with Molly Smith, High School Guidance Counselor, about working with any student clubs or programs that the Health District could get participation from for tobacco cessation and prevention. After sending Molly Smith the power point and objectives of what Champaign Health District wanted to accomplish this year, they set up a date for Foster to come and present to the Key Club subcommittee of community service. The Key Club includes students from grades 9-12. By engaging our Highschoolers they can perform outreach and provide support to peers and be role models to the younger age groups in the school district.
Trisha Foster and Molly Smith first met in November of 2023. At that time, were about 20 students in the subcommittee who were willing to present the power point created by Champaign Health District, with the approval of ODH, to their high school peers' homerooms. The students got into groups of 3 or 4 and practiced 3-4 weeks prior to gain knowledge and feel comfortable about presenting in front of classmates and friends. They presented in December of 2023 using the power point that covered laws, resources and information about smoking and vaping. The students then gave out a survey to students and went over the answers.
The High schoolers did an amazing job at presenting and getting information out to classmates. We reviewed the surveys, added some recommendations and feedback from the students, and celebrated their success with pizza a week after the presentations. While reviewing the surveys students learned a lot about the laws and vaping. We received 203 surveys from the high school, which is probably 75% completion rate.
This clearly could not have happened without the help of the students and Molly Smith. The collaboration and communication were successful. The students gained confidence presenting and learned a lot about what the Health District and ODH are trying to accomplish.
Student presenters were so successful, they wanted to present to the Middle Schoolers (grades 6-8) in January/ February of 2024. With the recommendations and feedback, we shortened the power point to target the 11-13 age group. The Health District also added school policy and consequences to raise early awareness.
The students practiced the new power point, and the Health District communicated through emails about presentations, questions, and ideas to help them. Students then present to all grade level (6th-8th) home rooms the first week of February. They passed out a survey after the presentations and the presenters went over the answer with the students. We received 292 completed surveys from the middle school which is about 75% completion rate.
The outcomes Champaign Health District and West Liberty-Salem wanted was to get the ‘Quit Line’ information out to the community. Another outcome was by including the youth at West Liberty-Salem, students were able to collaborate with the Health District by using their voices and reaching a specific group that the District wouldn’t have the same outcome with. After the presentation, the Health District realized that a lot of the students did not know the laws about vaping, especially age restrictions and where you can vape in public.
In summary this youth involvement project was successful due to the great collaboration and communication between Champaign Health District and West Liberty-Salem. We were able to get information out to about 500 youth (ages 11-18) in our county who may have gained knowledge about the Quit Line and vaping and tobacco effects. This is just the beginning of this project, and I know there will be more success down the road.