EVALUATION OF SMOKE FREE YOUTH COALITIONS

REANNA MESSERDR. LOUIS BROWN

UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPIBIOLOGY, BIOCHEMISTRY

“CPRIT SUMMER TRAINEE 2012”

Organizations that work as health promotion strategies

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death

Empower youth with leadership skills, responsibilities, and social development

Tobacco Free Youth Coalitions

80% of adult smokers begin before age 18, target youth population

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death

Project Aims Aim 1) Document coalition activities

designed to enhance youth capacity and promote for tobacco control

Data collection through interviews and observation which facilitated survey development

Project Aims Aim 2) Assess coalition functioning

strengths and weaknesses

Preliminary survey instrument and survey to measure coalition-specific constructs

Project Aims Aim 3) Document the successes of the

Smoke Free Youth CoalitionsConduct focus groups to document

coalition success and participation benefits

Aim 4) Identify factors that helped and hindered coalition successFocus groups also helped uncover

barriers that hindered strategies and coalition success

Generate ideas to improve coalition functioning

TasksReview literature on youth groups pursing social change

Write a review of the literature, to be included as an author of journal article

Observe coalition feedback reports and meetings

Implement innovative strategies within coalition functioning

Frame ShiftFrame Shift

Analogy

My age and physical stature

inhibit my power

I can relate to and therefore

influence target population more

efficiently

Youth instigate

tobacco use

Youth can reach target population

more efficiently

Implementing Innovative Strategies

Have youth create a vision statement

Why: Improve cohesion Promote public speaking and leadership Increase efficiency during activities and meetings

How: Divide into subgroups Provide different guiding questions to each group Outline a draft statement Have each group “fill in” one section of statement Revise, display, and reiterate purpose

Enhance tobacco preventi

on efforts

Improve coalition

functioning with

improved structure

Construct a recommendations guide

for coalitions

Promote communicati

on and recruitment

through Facebook

page

Design a recommendation guide for

coalitions pursing youth empowerment

models

Further Accomplishments

First this, now that

Continue to pursue public health strategies

Continue to have phone conferences with both coalitions—add bylaws, contracts, and mission statements

Shift my area of focus from clinical medicine to…. Clinical medicine

Thank you for this opportunityDr. Louis BrownCPRIT ProgramSHOUT Youth Coalition

Katherine ArnesonHEARTS Youth Coalition

Penny DownsDee Swope

Keep In ContactReanna L. Messer

rmesser@nmsu.edu662-213-9115

4494 Jon Cunningham BlvdApt 7101El Paso, TX 79934