African American Teens Empowered to Eliminate Tobacco Mission

The African American Teens Empowered to Eliminate Tobacco Mission (A-TEEM) is a youth advocacy group representing stand, Ohio's statewide counter-marketing campaign. The ATEEM was created in 2003 when the Greater Cleveland Health Education and Service Council was funded by the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation to reduce tobacco use among African American youth. The ATEEM's mission is to educate youth about the hazards of tobacco use and secondhand smoke and empower teens to become advocates (Leaders) against tobacco use through policy, education and peer– to –peer counseling. In 2003, twenty-seven inner-city youth whose life priorities far outweighed the consequences of tobacco use were selected to participate in a three-day retreat, Operation: “Big Tobacco”. Youth were divided into four Special Units (Guerrilla Unit, Green Beret, Navy Seals, and Airborne) to work collectively to plan and implement a campaign to “take out” the enemy “Big Tobacco”. Units were educated on tobacco statistics, hazards of tobacco use, secondhand smoke and asthma, media literacy and becoming advocates. Youth participated in team-building and leadership activities to promote unity and develop strategies in the war against “Big Tobacco.” Units prepared skits, poetry and public service announcements to demonstrate what they learned about tobacco. Youth returned to their community and currently hold bi-monthly meetings to plan activist events to educate their peers about the hazards of tobacco use, secondhand smoke, techniques used by tobacco companies to influence them to start using tobacco and strategies to say “No” to tobacco.