15 Sep 2008
SIMCOE MUSKOKA – High school students can tap into cash resources at school this fall to beat the tobacco industry at its own teen marketing game.
It’s the fourth year grants of $1,000 are being made available to secondary schools across Simcoe and Muskoka for student-led initiatives that raise awareness about tobacco issues and encourage youth to stay or become tobacco free. The grants are administered through the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit with funding from Smoke-Free Ontario.
Leslie Gordon, the heath unit’s tobacco program co-ordinator says the best results have come from schools that really do empower their students to design, plan and implement peer-to-peer initiatives.
“Given the chance the students have shown real ingenuity,” she said, pointing to a website created last year by a student group at St. Dominic Catholic Secondary School in Bracebridge.
The students developed the website, www.istank.ca, and promoted it with a full marketing campaign that included branding, logos, posters, an anti-tobacco video, and giveaway items to draw teen traffic from the school and the community at large.
“Their technology teacher gave the students free reign to create this great anti-tobacco website that talks to kids in their language. They were able to learn in class and then use these new communications, marketing and leadership skills in a real-life setting.”
The grant program is based on research that shows students want the support of their friends and peers to help develop the confidence to choose a tobacco-free lifestyle. The findings were reinforced in a 2005 survey of local high school students. Among Grade 9 students, 10 per cent identified themselves as smokers. Among Grade 12 students the number of smokers had swelled to 27 per cent. An alarming one in four non-smokers reported they had low confidence in their ability to remain smoke free in the future.
Students or Parent Council members interested in getting involved in anti-tobacco work in their school should speak with their principals. Grant applications will be sent to schools at the end of September and the final deadline for applying for the grant is November 14, 2008.
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