Our Healthy Futures
Introduction for Educators
We want to make note of who should be facilitating this ATS conducted in a group setting, and whether using the 2-, or 4-hour version. Having the right person leading this ATS is critical. Here are some important considerations when choosing the facilitator, and training needs:
- It is critical that whoever is chosen to provide this ATS actually wants to do this intervention. All facilitators must have buy-in to the program, and training. We cannot think of any worse fate for a student to be attending something that they DEFINITELY DO NOT want to be attending in the first place, and then have to spend time with someone who also DOES NOT want to be there. They will know this within 5 minutes. Please only assign this work to people who want to do this and have some skill sets to be able to be successful.
- Recruit a Counselor/Educator/Volunteer who has a passion for tobacco education and prevention. We feel that the facilitator of this ATS program needs to have buy-in to the program as they will be expected to show a PowerPoint and facilitate activities and discussions, whether it be one-on-one or as a group.
- 3) If you’re not up to speed on JUUL and other pod-based systems, besides reviewing this material here, spend some time on the Stanford Tobacco Prevention Toolkit includinggoing over the basics. Crash courses are also available to increase your understanding, found here.
- We feel that how the facilitator runs the intervention is equally as important as what you are doing. Expressing lots of empathy and understanding is critical and, most importantly, this is NOT a place to be preachy or judgmental. Facilitators are there to offer information and to ascertain if there is some interest to change in the student’s habits, what they may be willing to do, and refer them for further support.
Facilitators of the ATS only need to click on which program they are using and all materials are listed and ready to use via one download. Pre- and post-testing materials are available. This information is confidential, as students will give themselves a random seven-digit code to utilize. Schools can prepare their own use of this data and Stanford will use this confidential information in their data collections.
We have also included an Open Letter for Parents/Guardians template to give parents/guardians whose child has been caught using vapes/e-cigarettes on campus.
We hope you find these materials useful.