The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #46750

Susanna H. Roberts, RN, MSN, Community Health Promotion unit, Community Health Services, DuPage County Health Department, 111 North County Farm Road, Wheaton, IL 60187, 630.682.7979, ext. 7126, sroberts@dupagehealth.org

While funding from the tobacco settlement is still available, DuPage County Health Department has contracted with songwriter Mike Nobel to produce materials to assist schools in performing "I'm Alive!", a collection of songs in a variety of musical styles that reinforce anti-tobacco themes. Tobacco funds were used to purchase the rights to perform the musical in DuPage County, which we have shared with partner schools. First piloted in two small rural schools in Maine, the musical is being embraced by community agencies and student assistance professionals from large and middle sized school districts in our Illinois County. Participating schools will engage students, school staff and parent volunteers for K-6 level productions, using songbooks and a CD music-only soundtrack provided to back up performers. Middle and high schools plan to have students take shorter performances to younger students as part of Operation Snowflake and Snowflurry, mainstays in their substance abuse prevention curricula. The "I'm Alive!" teaching guide is based on CDC tobacco education guidelines. Pre- and post-test evaluation tools are provided, along with referrals to the Health Department's smoking cessation resources. We expect to replicate the data from Maine indicating that child exposure to environmental tobacco smoke went down in households whose children participated in "I'm Alive!" Our goal in using tobacco funds to empower schools to engage students, staff and community members in anti-tobacco stagecraft is to assure that the positive health promoting messages play on, long after tobacco funding is gone.

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