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Overview
Overview
Youth, parents, guardians, and families play a key role in contributing to successful initiatives within the school community. Youth and family voices, experiences, and expertise through a shared, decision making approach, leads to increased engagement, and better alignment to the needs and interests of youth and families.
Parents and families can play an important role in shaping adolescent tobacco and nicotine use behavior. Increasing family engagement in prevention programming, as well as encouraging families to have conversations with youth about tobacco and nicotine use could help reduce this concerning behavior.
Continue on for suggestions to engage youth and families in Tobacco Free Schools work.
Engage Youth Voice and Leadership
Engage Youth Voice and Leadership
There are many potential benefits of engaging youth in prevention work. When youth are authentically involved and co-design advocacy efforts, they have the opportunity to use their voice to shape actions that impact them. Young people can bring valuable perspective when discussing issues such as health and education that impact them deeply.
This is also challenging work that requires a thoughtful approach to designing authentic partnership with young people.
Consider the following steps prior to involving young people in your efforts.
1) Assess Organizational Readiness and Staff Capacity
Is your organization prepared to authentically involve young people? Consider the questions raised in the recorded webinar, “Assessing Organizational Capacity & Readiness to Successfully Engage with Youth in Your Substance Use Prevention Work” around resources, organizational culture, policies supportive of involving youth, motivation related to involving youth, and training and preparation.
2) Training and Preparation for Adults
Identify the adults who will support youth engagement. Consider what training, knowledge, or skills they bring into the experience and how that matches what is needed to be successful.
Use a Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach: PYD emphasizes building on youths’ strengths and providing support and opportunities that will help them achieve goals and transition to adulthood in a productive, healthy manner. Colorado Specific PYD trainings and tools here.
Research existing prevention science and substance use campaigns & advocacy approaches: In order to do advocacy work well, with the intended outcomes, it is important to review existing campaigns, discuss campaign development, and consider health equity impacts.
-Check out The Truth Campaign, for a national resource and examples of advocacy/campaign work
-Check out UpRISE, Colorado’s Statewide Youth Tobacco Control Movement, for advocacy-in-a-box activities, and to get connected with local movement work.
Access Technical Assistance: Implementation science affirms the need for ongoing support, sometimes called technical assistance. Involving youth in substance prevention work can be nuanced; having an expert or support staff to guide you can enable you to learn and grow from the experience. In order to maximize youth and adult outcomes, adults who work with youth should receive support and validation.
-Contact RMC for Technical Assistance related to Tobacco Free Schools Policy at : info@rmc.org
-Contact UpRISE staff for Technical Assistance related to youth coalition work at: Heather.kennedy@cuanschutz.edu or Allyson.howe@cuanschutz.edu
3) Gain clarity and consensus on the purpose and goals of your youth engagement effort & identify and address any policy or logistical barriers.
Identify the members of the team who are motivated to engage youth. Then, identify what you plan to engage youth in. Ask if this matches what youth are interested in. Ask each member to define what youth engagement means to them and to reflect on the following prompt: “If we were looking back over the (month/quarter/year) and we were successful in our youth engagement in tobacco efforts, what would have occurred?"
To help identify solutions to organizational barriers, consider the following questions:
-What policies are in place that might impede your youth engagement efforts?
-Are you able to compensate youth for the added time and energy they will spend on this effort?
-What are your organizations/schools rules about communicating with youth (texting, phone, using social media).
-What time/day are the meetings that will be held related to this effort? Do youth need transportation?
-Are these meetings something youth will be able to attend given their other commitments?
-If youth provide suggestions, is there anything that is “off limits” or something that you cannot take action on?
4) Engaging with youth coalitions or groups
Depending on the environment you work in, you may consider a) starting a group with young people to address tobacco prevention, or b) connecting with a pre-existing community lead coalition.
To explore existing groups, visit UpRISE Youth Coalitions, Communities that Care, or Communities Organizing for Prevention in your area.
Use Best Practices for Family Engagement
Use Best Practices for Family Engagement
Schools and communities working to address tobacco and nicotine can use the following practices to support family engagement.
1) Share decision making power with families
Host a parent/community advisory council that provides ideas and feedback on Tobacco-Free Schools Policy and enforcement as well as other wellness initiatives within the school.
A diverse advisory council helps ensure you are leading with a wide-lens that takes into account how policies will potentially impact all of your families.
2) Communicate tobacco policies and resources with families
Communicate when students will receive information about tobacco/vaping and provide families with resources so they can keep the conversation going at home.
Utilize district and school websites to communicate policies and share prevention and quit resources. Highlight national events like the Great American Smokeout or Mental Health Awareness month, highlighting the colliding crisis between youth mental health and nicotine use.
Ensure student/parent handbooks clearly communicate district/school tobacco/vaping policy and potential disciplinary measures.
3) Invite families to be part of the solution
Invite parents and family members to help plan and participate in school and/or classroom tobacco/vaping and healthy choices events.
Invite their quit stories into your spaces!
Host family events that emphasize making healthy choices, including choices around tobacco and nicotine use.
Host a Start the Conversation Workshop: How to Talk with Young People About Vaping, JUULS, and other Electronic Nicotine Devices.
Provide information about cessation programs for family members who want to quit using tobacco products.
Whenever possible, integrate tobacco-free schools events into established school events. This approach connects the work to the broader school/community, combines resources, and efficiently uses the time of busy families. Reviewing school calendars, talking with a school activity coordinator, community liaison, or Parent/Teacher Organization, can help you identify events to coordinate around.
Discuss the cultural and familial aspects of tobacco and nicotine use. Consider how to provide supports and resources to families.
Resources
Resources
UpRISE (Resist, Inform, Step-Up, Empower)
Colorado’s Social Justice Tobacco Control Movement. Through youth coalitions, UpRISE aims to amplify Colorado young people’s passion to shift perspectives about the tobacco industry, exposing dangerous practices, increasing awareness, and identifying root causes of nicotine and substance use.
Resource with information students need to be successful in leading efforts.
Webpage with information from U.S. Health and Human Services on understanding Positive Youth Development.
Involving Youth in Positive Youth Development
Resource regarding involving youth as partners in making decisions to increase the likelihood that the decisions will be accepted, adopted, and become part of their everyday lives.
Catch My Breath Parent Toolkit for Middle and High School Students - Spanish version HERE.
Resource for parents/guardians to complete a vaping risk assessment to see how they are already supporting their child and where they can improve. Helps to address common roadblocks to talking about tobacco and vaping, including how the parent/guardian can address their current use of tobacco/nicotine with their child.
Ideas for getting a conversation going around nicotine/vaping. Help youth develop a game plan to resist vaping and nicotine products.
Tobacco Education Resource Library
Available in English & Spanish. Short informational videos to help adults better understand the facts about e-cigarettes and the dangers of vaping.
Tobacco Free Kids: Tips on Talking to Your Kids
Printable tip sheet for parents/guardians that includes key conversation tips and sample conversations and responses.
Colorado Department of Education Substance Use Slide Deck for Family Presentations
Provides a sample slide deck for schools to adapt and provide their own training to families on understanding youth substance use, including youth brain development, youth substance misuse (alcohol, nicotine/vaping, cannabis, and fentanyl/opioids), and tips for talking with youth.
Colorado Cannabis, Help for Parents Responsibility Grows Here
Includes tips for talking with young people about marijuana.
Helpful Articles:
Colliding Crisis: Youth Mental Health and Nicotine Use
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