OKLAHOMA CITY – Several schools in southwest Oklahoma will buy water fountains, greenhouse supplies, playground and outdoor fitness equipment, and construct a walking path, with grants from the Oklaho- ma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) board of directors.
TSET also has launched two new anti-tobacco programs designed especially for teenagers.
“Lifelong healthy habits are formed at a young age,” said Dr. Bruce Benjamin, chairman of the TSET board. “The purpose of the Healthy Schools Incentive Grant program is to ensure our schools have policies in place and have the resources they need to promote health among students.”
Schools were awarded the grants for adopting policies and strategies that promote being tobacco-free, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and increasing physical activity for students, faculty, parents and staff. Local districts and schools decide how grant funds will be used; TSET requires that each project promote health.
Recipients of the grants included:
• Rush Springs public schools: $20,000, to be used for playground and outdoor fitness equipment.
• Granite public schools: $15,000, for playground equipment and sunshade, water fountains, crosswalk safety and signage, school garden/greenhouse equipment and supplies, and action-based learning training.
• Hollis public schools: $20,000, to develop a walking path.
• Waurika Elementary School: $7,500, for improvement of the playground and for shade covering.
• Waurika High School: $2,000, for hydration stations. Also, TSET recently launched “My Life, My Quit,” an evidence-based cessation program that offers free live text support, web chat and ’phone coaching designed for teens 13-17 years of age.
“Young Oklahomans have their own stressors and unique situations, so it is important for them to have their own way to quit tobacco, as well,” said Julie Bisbee, TSET executive director.
To sign up for services, teens 13-17 can text “Start My Quit” to 855-891-9989 for real-time coaching or visit MyLifeMyQuit.com to enroll online. Registration and use of services are confidential. Nicotine replacement therapy is not provided.
To further support youth tobacco prevention and cessation, TSET’s board of directors recently approved a contract with Rescue, a marketing agency focused on health campaigns, to launch a statewide education campaign focused on Oklahoma youth ages 13-18.
Funding begins July 1, with the first messaging expected to begin in September 2020. The plan calls for an investment of $2.5 million a year over five years with specific behavior change benchmarks to be reached around tobacco use, prevention and cessation, and obesity prevention and reduction.
“Over the last two years, a vaping epidemic among youth has erased two decades of gains in the fight against youth tobacco use,” said Michelle Stephens, vice chair of the TSET board of directors. “We know that healthy habits learned at a young age are more likely to last for a lifetime. Ensuring a healthy future for our state means focusing on Oklaho- ma’s children today.”
The specific focus on youth prevention would be a new program under TSET’s public education efforts and will complement “Tobacco Stops With Me”, which seeks to educate Oklahoma adults on the hazards of tobacco use and secondhand smoke, and “Shape Your Future”, which educates parents and families on eating better, moving more and living tobacco free.
In Oklahoma, 1 in 5 students use some form of tobacco. Each year, 1,500 children under age 18 become daily smokers. The rise of e-cigarette and vape use among youth has been declared an epidemic by the U.S. Surgeon General, with a quadrupling of Oklahoma high school students reporting e-cigarette use in the last three years.