What Youth Prevention Looks Like: Learning, Advocacy, Belonging, and Fun!
Even though we were not able to fill our Youth Program Coordinator position this spring, we feel really proud of how much we were able to accomplish to support youth empowerment this quarter through strong partnerships with our school district partners.
We spent time with the Hunt Be Above group to learn about marketing strategies of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis companies and how to look critically at advertising. The kids did a “Caption This!” activity creating new taglines or captions for the ads, turning things like an ad for nicotine pouches that said “Live Unstoppable” into “Live longer without this.”
We brought members of the EMS BE Above group to Vermont Substance Misuse Prevention Day at the Statehouse in April. The EMS students participated in a youth showcase activity at the event and they even led an activity that got everyone out of their seats to find joy in the things that give them a natural high. Then we brought kids to a House Committee meeting to observe testimony on S.198 a bill that adds protections and restrictions on nicotine products that target youth. They talked to legislators about protections they would like to see to protect kids like themselves.
Our BHS Elevate campaign wrapped up the school year with messaging and activities to help with coping with stress. The campaign message was “Pause. Breathe. Decide what you need.” It focused on helping students to create healthy habits to support better coping, such as drinking water, getting consistent sleep, eating, exercise and screen breaks. One of the activities that was the biggest hit was a “Stress Swap”. “Stress cards” were hidden around the high school and when a student found one they could swap it in for something to help with stress, like fidgets, gum, and meditative breathing tools.
We wrapped up the year with a little bit of group bonding and fun! Edmunds and Hunt Middle School groups met up together for an end of year party to decorate sunglasses and make friendship bracelets, then we topped it off with ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s. We know that giving young people opportunities for pro-social activities and connection not only helps improve mental well-being in the short term but it can also help improve long term outcomes like prevention of substance misuse.
