Volition Franklin Youth members welcomed students to the new Forest Park Middle School with root beer floats and education about vaping. Students shared with their peers the dangers of vaping and how sweet-flavored vapes cover up many harmful chemicals. Students also had a parent education toolkit with vape devices and bringing the conversation home to their student. They treated about 600 incoming students to a root beer floats.
St. Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt
Middle School Volition Youth members challenged their peers to complete a St. Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt around school March 11-15. St. Patrick’s Day-themed shapes were hidden around school. Under the shapes were facts about prescription pills, underage drinking, tobacco, and marijuana. Students were tasked with finding four different shapes/ facts and writing them out on the green scavenger hunt forms, also placed around school. Home base teachers were also given directions and forms for students. Once completed, students had the opportunity to turn their completed form in at lunch for a prize. 22 students completed the scavenger hunt.
8th Positive Peer Influence Presentation
Volition youth members participated in presented to all 8th grade Forest Park Middle School students about vaping and how to be an advocate. The high school Athletics Director led a presentation about vaping, health effects, and addiction. The students then broke out into three subgroups—how vaping effects athletics and activities, the health effects of vaping on the body, and how to be a positive peer influence. Volition Youth members presented content about advocacy, how to be a positive peer influence, and demonstrated refusal skills. In one of the activities, 8th grade students were asked to write how they were a positive peer influence. Some examples they provided were:
· I’m a good peer to my fiends because I support them in what they want to do that’s good
· My friends feel open to ask me for help/ advice and I make sure they know that
· I’m good a cheering people up
· I accept them for who they are and encourage them to stay strong
About 75 8th grade students chose to attend this breakout session. Six Volition Youth members presented over the course of four days (eight presentations).
Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU) training
October 26, 2018
High school students were selected and trained to be Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU) presenters. TATU is a program that allows high school students to mentor younger students about the dangers of smoking and vaping. Research shows that peer-led programs are effective ways to reduce youth tobacco use and positively influence younger students. We give presentations to 6th grade science classes at each elementary school in Franklin. During the presentation, we have a section about decision making and refusal skills. High school presenters conduct a skit in which they demonstrate various refusal skills and the six grade students have to guess which skill was used. About 350 six grade students are reached at all five public elementary schools.
Three seniors led the training for new TATU presenters. In addition to presenting about tobacco/vape use and its health effects, they also discussed good presentation and leadership skills. All students were able to demonstrate the actual content of the TATU presentation to each other. Nine students were trained.
Generation Found Movie
FYI members Bella and Justin spoke to attendees at Generation Found about the work they are doing in FYI and how peer-to-peer advocacy prevents youth substance misuse and abuse.
The Alliance Leadership Summit (May 1–2, 2017)
Shreya and Liv attended a youth leadership summit held May 1–2 on the topic of underage drinking. Shreya said her biggest take away point was that sometimes it takes a little competition to get more people involved in our group, like having competitive games at community events. Liv says her biggest take away was that it take a team to accomplish your goal and it's the leader's job to empower other leaders to join the group, so that everyone can accomplish change. Check out the video from the conference: https://vimeo.com/216656625.
Bullying Prevention Presentation
FYI members, Hali, Justin, Oli, Olivia B, and Shreya hosted a bullying prevention presentation at the High School during Gold Block. We had a powerpoint presentation about bullying, why people bully, how to take positive action, and what would you do scenarios. We also performed skits to get everyone involved. Overall the feedback was very good and 100% of participants were satisfied with the presentation. We had a slight increase in knowledge from the pre-test to post-test questions. Students had a 14% increase in knowledge about students' basic rights when attending school and 32% increase in knowledge about the effects of bullying on a teenager. Participants said they learned how to "not stand idly by when something is happening" and that "just because your friend is bullying others it doesn't mean you have to too". We encouraged students to use the bullying report form and tell someone if they witness bullying. Overall, the presentation was powerful and impactful. In the future, we'd like to increase advertising to get more students in the room and practice the presentation as a group so the presentation itself stays streamlined. 11 people attended the presentation. Great job FYI!
