Alternatives to suspension for tobacco/vaping in schools was identified by our community as an action, that when combined with other actions, has a reasonable chance of making a difference in nicotine use among students in our community. This is an expansion of an ongoing program in our community.

The priority population/customers for this program are school administrators, and the program aims to make a difference at the organizational level. Implementation will take place in middle and high schools. The program's outcomes, however, will have the biggest effects at the personal level for students.

This program will be implemented through a partnership between the CARE Coalition of Transylvania County, the Healthy Communities program of Transylvania Public Health, Blue Zones Project - Brevard, and Transylvania County Schools. It aims to provide comprehensive nicotine services to teens, including a prevention curriculum (CATCH My Breath) for all students, alternatives to suspension (Vapeducate, In-Depth) for students who have been caught smoking/vaping on campus, and cessation programs (NOT on Tobacco) for students who want to quit or reduce their nicotine use.

The partners for this program include:

The "Story Behind the Curve" helps us understand the causes and forces at that work that explain the data behind youth use of tobacco/nicotine and the resources the coalition plans to commit to address the health issue.

What's Helping What We Do? These are the positive forces at work in our program that influence how much we do or how well we do it.

• School administration requests for help address student vaping
• Educational curricula available for use as needed by schools (licenses can be purchased ahead of time and used on demand)
• Program funding and staff support from CARE Coaltion, Healthy Communities, and Blue Zones Project - Brevard
• Past work by student coalition members to promote anti-vaping messages
• Support by students and staff for education rather than punishment

What's Hurting What We Do? These are the negative forces at work in our program that influence how much we do or how well we do it.

• Slow process to adopt new methods for addressing substance use on campus
• Cost to purchase licenses
• Limited staff capacity to implement universal educational curriculum

What's Helping Communities Served/Customer Change? These are the positive forces at work in our program that influence customer change.

• Some students want to quit or reduce tobacco/nicotine use
• Support by students and staff for education rather than punishment

What's Hurting Communities Served/Customer Change? These are the negative forces at work in our program that influence customer change.

• Some students don't want to quit or reduce tobacco/nicotine use

The following actions have been identified by our coalition as ideas for what can work for this performance measure to make a difference on youth tobacco/nicotine use.

Actions and Approaches Identified by Our Coalition These are actions and approaches that we think can make a difference for this performance measure.

• Building relationships with school administration and staff to ease adoption of new programs
• Student-led advocacy for new programs and policy

No-cost and Low-cost Ideas Identified by Our Coalition These are no-cost and low-cost actions and approaches that we think can make a difference for this performance measure.

•   none identified at this time

What Our Communities/Customers Think Would Work To Do Better These are actions and approaches that our communities served/customers think can make a difference for this performance measure.

• none identified at this time

List of Questions/Research Agenda These are questions to follow-up on for this performance measure. If you still need more information about what works to do better, make these questions part of your information & research agenda.

• none identified at this time

New staff at Transylvania County Schools were trained to offer tobacco cessation counseling to students. Additional licenses were purchased for schools to use for students who are caught using vapes/tobacco on campus as an alternative to suspension.

Healthy Communities staff partnered with MountainWise Tobacco staff and the CARE Coalition to present a speaker on vaping addiction to approximately 1,900 middle and high school students in the county and offered "Quit Kits" with information and cessation tools to interested students.

Two new staff were hired by the CARE Coalition in mid-2023. These staff were trained to deliver nicotine prevention and alternative to suspension programs, and 1 staff was trained to offer a nicotine cessation program.

CARE Coalition staff delivered the "Catch My Breath" vaping prevention curriculum to all health classes at Rosman Middle School, and began planning efforts to deliver this curriculum at Brevard Middle School in early 2024. The coalition also purchased "Vape Educate" licenses for Transylvania County middle and high schools, which is an online curriculum to be used as an alternative to suspension for students who were caught vaping.

In addition, CARE partnered with MountainWise, the Healthy Communities program at Transylvania Public Health, and the regional tobacco control manager to support a Tobacco 21 resolution presented to and adopted by both the Transylvania County Board of Education and the Transylvania County Board of Health.