Overall Goal of Community & Youth Initiatives Tobacco Program

Through training and technical assistance, we strive to increase the capacity of Texas communities and schools to effectively create positive change at the local level in reducing the burden of tobacco use and secondhand smoke.

Values/Guiding Principles

The following values guide us in our daily work, planning and program implementation:

1) Youth-Adult Partnerships:
We are intentional in our efforts to involve youth in our program planning and implementation efforts, and believe in the contributions offered by young people as real solutions to the social problems that face us today.
2) Community Building:
We are committed to making significant contributions in the communities in which we work and live, and believe all real positive change starts at the community level.
3) Learning & Teaching:
We strive to create and maintain an environment that allows us and others to capture knowledge and the best practices in tobacco prevention and control and disseminate it regularly through such offerings as the Regional Teen Tobacco Summits and Annual Texas Teen Tobacco Summit and Comprehensive Tobacco Prevention Conference.
4) Leadership & Advocacy:
We promote public policy and system change as the most effective mechanisms to impact the problems caused by tobacco use and secondhand smoke. We continue to bring on board new leaders and advocates for this cause. We also continue to develop and train our youth partners and adult allies in leadership and advocacy skills so that they may take action to create positive change.

Five Main Program Strategies

CSCS will implement the following strategies in order to achieve our overall goal of increasing capacity in order to reduce the burden of tobacco on the state of Texas:

1) Law Enforcement Activities,
2) Texas Teen Ambassador Initiative,
3) Texas Tobacco-Free Teen Leadership Summits,
4) Annual Texas Teen Tobacco Summit and Comprehensive Tobacco Prevention Conference,
5) Follow-Up and Assistance to Program Participant Groups.

ASPIRE

A Smoking Prevention Interactive Experience (ASPIRE) is a web-based multimedia program developed by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for adolescents. ASPIRE uses animations, videos, and interactive activities to communicate the facts about smoking and tobacco use, as well as, offers skills to adopt a tobacco-free lifestyle. With broadband internet access, use ASPIRE at home, in the classroom, the computer lab, the library or any public computer. ASPIRE is evidence-based and is available free of charge. For more information: http://www.mdanderson.org/aspire/