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Archive for the ‘Tobacco Prevention’ Category
Help save the Health and Wellness Trust Fund and the TRU Movement!
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011SAVE the TRU Movement!
Thursday, May 5th, 2011http://questionwhy.org/resources/save-the-tru-movement/
The HWTF (Health and Wellness Trust Fund) was established with Tobacco Settlement funds (not taxpayer dollars) and was intended to help states address the health and financial toll of tobacco. The North Carolina General Assembly established the HWTF to protect those funds and use them as intended for health purposes, and tobacco prevention and cessation in particular. Eliminating the Health and Wellness Trust Fund would be against the original purpose of the Master Settlement Agreement – leaving North Carolinians without access to tobacco prevention and cessation resources.
The HWTF supports prevention efforts like the TRU (Tobacco, Reality, Unfiltered) program at the Poe Center. Since 2003, when HWTF tobacco programs began:
- There are 53,000 fewer youth smokers
- The middle schoolsmoking rate in North Carolina has been cut by more than half since HWTF efforts began and the high school smoking rate has dropped by a third.
These are the lowest rates every recorded in our state’s history.
NC Health and Wellness Trust Fund Launches Statewide QuitlineNC Mobile Campaign to Help Keep New Year’s Resolutions
Thursday, January 13th, 2011NC Health and Wellness Trust Fund Launches Statewide QuitlineNC Mobile Campaign to Help Keep New Year’s Resolutions
Text messages provide encouragement, support for smokers who want to quit
New Year’s resolutions can be difficult to keep – especially if your goal is to quit smoking. But with help from the NC Health and Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF) and its phone-based tobacco cessation service QuitlineNC, North Carolinians will have additional support right at their fingertips with the first-ever statewide mobile campaign aimed to help North Carolina smokers quit for good. Starting January 12, participants who text “COACH” to 44264, will receive cessation advice via their mobile phones. The text messages will provide some of the “quit tips” that one would get from a Quit Coach at QuitlineNC.
“QuitlineNC has proven to be an effective tool in helping North Carolinians stop smoking,” said Dr. Laura Gerald, Executive Director of the NC Health and Wellness Trust Fund. “New technologies allow us to give people a chance to see the kind of sound advice QuitlineNC offers through a simple process – texting.”
More than 27,000 North Carolinians have called QuitlineNC at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) for support in navigating the rough waters of smoking cessation. Now, the helpful tips of a “Quit Coach” remind texters that quitting smoking is possible and offer up advice that is tailored according to the texter’s responses to a few questions. Text messages will be sent over a seven-week period and will provide information as well as encouragement to quit smoking.
Texting has become a central form of communication, especially for young adults, and people who may be reluctant to call QuitlineNC may be willing to opt in for the text messages. With a better understanding of the kinds of things they might hear if they were to speak with a Quit Coach, they may eventually follow up the texts with a call to QuitlineNC where help from coaches can double their chances of successfully quitting.
First launched as a pilot program in Wake County in May 2010, 741 opted in to receive the text messages. QuitlineNC’s call volume was also impacted by the text campaign, increasing 40 percent in Wake County during the month of the campaign. The success of the pilot mobile campaign prompted HWTF’s leaders to extend the program statewide. Radio spots to promote QuitlineNC’s text campaign will begin airing statewide today and will run for three weeks. For more information about QuitlineNC, please visit http://www.quitlinenc.com/.
TRU Campaign
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
Destini Donaldson from Parkland High School is the centerpiece of the TRU Campaign’s newest public service announcement. While Destini has never smoked, Bob Buckley shows us how she speaks with so much authority to those who do smoke.
Destini’s story is one of two stories featured in the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund’s new TRU campaign. See the ads featuring Destini as well as ads featuring Justin at this website. http://www.realityunfiltered.com/TRUtv.aspx
Those who may be inspired to quit tobacco use can get free coaching by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669).
The Poe Center Makes an Impact During Healthy Communities Day!
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010On July 15, 2010, the Poe Center for Health Education provided nutrition and physical activity education and tobacco prevention and cessation messaging to over 500 youth! Joining forces with the Triangle YMCAs, WakeMed, Wake Teen and other community organizations the Poe Center successfully delivered approximately 40 mini-sessions of valuable health education. The participants ranged in age from preschool to high-school and were a very receptive audience. The Poe Center was also very grateful to have the support of volunteers from Meredith College’s Masters of Nutrition Program and Wake TRU (Tobacco.Reality.Unfiltered) youth.