Young Spirits say 'No' to smoking

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A program designed to encourage Aboriginal youth in Saskatchewan to adopt a tobacco free lifestyle is gearing up for its second year of operation.

Young Spirits: Proud to be Tobacco Free is a joint initiative of Saskatchewan Health and Health Canada that was first launched in April 2003, targeting its anti-smoking message at youth in grades 5 to 9 in northern and community schools.

Eva Davis is a health promotion consultant with Saskatchewan Health. She explained that the Young Spirits program was originally created to get information out to Aboriginal youth about their tobacco use, but the focus has now broadened to take in non-Aboriginal youth as well.

The program consists of two components, the first being a series of radio ads that have been created in collaboration with Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation, another partner is the Young Spirits program. The ads, produced and aired by Missinipi, are done in English, Cree and Dene. The ads ran last year and will again be part of this year's campaign beginning in early 2004, to coincide with National Non-Smoking Week, Jan. 18 to 24.

The second component of the program is a package that is sent out to schools, containing items for teachers and for the students themselves. Among the items in the kit is a list of video resources that teachers can use to get the anti-smoking message across in the classroom, as well as a list of Web-based resources that both teachers and students can use to learn more about tobacco. The kit also contains a poster, and some smoking-related statistics.

"And the most innovative thing that we've done for students is we've developed a contract for them, for 12- to 15-year-olds particularly, where they commit to doing some sort of anti-tobacco project. And it's entirely of their choosing what they do," Eva Davis said.

"Some have just done something as simple as research and study on the Internet, learning more about the health hazards of tobacco. Some classes have done colouring books that they've then designed and given to the younger students in their schools, to sort of mentor the younger kids. There's a school in Regina here that congratulated one of the local doughnut shops in their neighbourhood for being a smoke-free establishment. They made posters and thank you letters and actually walked to the doughnut shop and presented these things to the restaurant manager. So it's a whole variety of projects that the young people can take. And then they fill out the contract, send it in to Saskatchewan Health, and in return they receive a reward, which is a portable radio."

The April launch of last year's program meant Young Spirits was only up and running for a couple of months before the school year ended, but in that time, about 400 students submitted contracts and received their rewards. This year, with the program launching in September, Davis hopes even more students will be taking part.

"The longer we can prevent young people from starting, the less likely they are ever to take up smoking. So that's the reason why we want to get the message out to the younger students, hopefully before they've taken up the addiction."

While the Young Spirits packages have been sent to northern and community schools within the provincially run system, any school or youth organization that wants to take part is welcome to do so. Requests for Young Spirits packages may be e-mailed to Davis at edavis@health.gov.sk.ca