Team Spirit Teens Work Together To Create Change

     I CARE  hosted the annual Team Spirit Conference at Waddill Wildlife Reserve Friday, September 11, 2009.  Area teens from East Baton Rouge public and private schools were in attendance.  Students and advisors from Arlington, Baton Rouge High, Belaire High, EBR Lab Academy, Glen Oaks High, Istrouma High, McKinley Senior High, Northdale Academy, Northeast High, Scotlandville High, St. Joseph’s Academy, Tara High, and Woodlawn High had fun networking together but even more importantly engaged in action planning with the purpose of bringing a message and plan for drug and violence prevention back to their schools.      

      Action Plans center around the four the major prevention campaigns which include Red Ribbon Month (October), Tobacco Prevention (November), Violence Prevention (December – February) and April Alcohol Awareness.   The activities and programs planned include, but are not limited to, special student body speakers, morning announcements,  red t-shirt day, hand drives, “Take A Stand Give A Hand”, “Kick Butts Day”, pre prom mixers, “Black Out Day”.  These activities are student driven and intended to raise awareness and provide information about drugs, alcohol and the consequences of poor choices.  Hats off to the Team Spirit Students working together as a team to create change.

What’s New in Tobacco Education Prevention?

ASPIRE – A Smoking Prevention Interactive Experience

Nearly 30 years ago the I CARE Program (alcohol, drug abuse and violence prevention program serving EBR public and non-public schools) began to look for WHAT’S NEW in prevention programming.  We continue to search for new and effective strategies today.

ASPIRE (A Smoking Prevention Interactive Online Experience) is such as strategy.  Its goals are to decrease, prevent, or stop smoking among adolescents.  It was developed by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Through interactive activities, videos, and fun animations smokers receive help trying to quit, non-smokers learn of negative smoking effects and all who participate learn to make healthy choices around tobacco issues. 

ASPIRE is evidence-based and free and can be used wherever the internet is accessible.  Alexander V. Prokhorov, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator for ASPIRE, is a physician with extensive experience with young populations.

EBRPSS and I CARE, with approval from Dr. Herman Brister, EBR Chief Academic Officer and PE & Health Director, Ken Jenkins, partnered with M. D. Anderson and the University of Texas, to pilot the “ASPIRE”  program at Woodlawn High School, during the 2008 – 2009 school year.  Sixteen states participated in the ASPIRE pilot during this time.

Coach Wendell Evers, health teacher at Woodlawn High piloted ASPIRE with students during the fall ’08semester.  Following the very successful pilot, all of his health classes participated in the ’09 spring semester.  The students not only enjoyed the interactive computer program, but their knowledge about tobacco dangers, refusal skills and cessation techniques increased significantly.

Students gave testimonials about ASPIRE: non-smokers said they will NEVER smoke, and students who had experimented with tobacco believe they will never use again, some intend to share the information with parents and encourage them to take the ASPIRE online course. Students indicated that they get messages from cigarette companies, peers and their parents but not usually from someone without a motive.  Perhaps the best testimonials of all came from the students who said that they will become peer leaders, speaking up to their friends and peers about not smoking.

Coach Evers and Woodlawn High won a $300.00 award to use for materials in health classes, in a contest sponsored by the developers for having 155 ASPIRE graduates, the 2^nd highest number per district from across the nation.  (At the time of press, there are over 2,000 ASPIRE pilot participants and 628 ASPIRE graduates.)

Coach Evers said, “ The long term impact is yet to be seen, but the short term effect is the buzz that this program has created. Kids are talking to peers, parents, siblings, and teachers about the information they received from ASPIRE.”  He said that one of the most exciting things is that the students voluntarily carry the message of what they have learned from ASPIRE to others, who are reporting their comments back to him. 

ASPIRE is also teacher friendly.  The course is tracked electronically, is individually paced and completed within 3 – 5 hours, with a printable certificate for successful completion of all modules.  Coach Evers expects to have 240-280 students each year participate, with 99% of them becoming ASPIRE graduates.

ASPIRE could complement existing health curricula, be incorporated into disciplinary policies or assigned as homework or extra credit. EBRPSS, I CARE and Coach Evers trained over 40 health teachers from EBRPSS and non-public schools in the use of this program.  Most will implement ASPIRE this school year with their students.

I CARE will continue to search for and implement new, effective prevention education.  We applaud the creators of ASPIRE and the teachers who anxiously present effective prevention information to students.  Students who make sound and healthy behavioral decisions are more likely to be successful in school as well as in life!

For more information see:  ICare   or   MD Anderson