News and Events
Gilchrist County SWAT Continues to Educate the Community on Youth Tobacco Prevention Issues
November 1, 2014
Gilchrist County SWAT youth have been active in the past few months by educating local community members about the problem of point of sale advertising geared toward youth, and by starting two new school SWAT clubs at Trenton High School.
Members of the Gilchrist County SWAT club participated in the Gilchrist County Family Fun Fest which was organized by the Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Department. SWAT youth attended the festival and spent time educating local students and their parents about the ways that tobacco companies target young people to notice, and buy their tobacco products in stores. Community members learned that children and adolescents are 20% more likely to notice tobacco advertisements at stores than adults, and that tobacco companies often pay stores to place advertisements in places where kids will notice them. For example, these pictures show two Gilchrist County stores that advertise tobacco products so that it is impossible to walk into the stores without seeing the advertisements.
Although the work of SWAT in Gilchrist County has helped to reduce the amount of tobacco advertising throughout the county, these pictures indicate that there is still room for improvement, and SWAT wants parents to be aware of these Big Tobacco tricks to snare kids into trying tobacco. As you can see, even in a school zone students are being exposed to tobacco advertisements. Thanks to the efforts of Gilchrist County SWAT youth, more parents and young people are aware of these kinds of advertisements in the community.
In addition to serving the community at the Sheriff’s festival, SWAT started two new clubs in Trenton. October 1st marked the first meeting of the Trenton SWAT clubs for both middle and high school students. The Trenton SWAT clubs have already started learning about tobacco issues such as flavored tobacco aimed at kids and other tobacco company tricks to get their peers addicted for life.
We are looking forward to the great activities and impact the Trenton SWAT clubs will have this school year. For more information about joining SWAT, please contact the Tobacco Prevention Specialist, Tracy DeCubellis, at tracyd@quitdoc.com or 352-463-7006.
