frontline

Activities

You’re probably wondering what types of activities your team can do to get started. Well, we’ve got just the thing!

First, make sure that whatever you do is fun. Activities may range from statewide activities such as Frontline's Statewide Advocacy Event, to local awareness activities, along with other ideas that your team creates.

Each Frontline Team is required to conduct at least one activity per month. Please submit an Activity Report after your team has conducted an activity.

FREE Team members can be included in all activities except the statewide events, contests and the Frontline Incentive Program.

What counts as an activity?
An activity involves your team advocating, educating, passing out information and/or promoting Frontline. Participation in Partnership events such as Frontline's Annual Advocacy Event and regional conferences count! An activity is an opportunity for you to share your passion for healthy lifestyles with other people.

Activity Themes for Each Month

August
• Back-to-school Recruitment Activity
This monthly activity serves as a recruitment tool for the Frontline team. Ask Frontline team members to think of ways they could recruit other students to join the Frontline team.  For example, your team may choose to plan a social, including food, games and brief introduction about the program. Be sure to mention the Frontline incentive program and community service activities in the introduction. 

• Student Survey
Frontline team members can survey students at the school or in the community to find out their attitudes, concerns and opinions about teen issues. Use the information to find out what areas your Frontline Team should focus on throughout the year. You can also use the information from the surveys in a presentation, at workshops or during assemblies. If you would like to see the difference your Frontline team will make throughout the year, distribute your survey at the beginning and end of the school year. For validity purposes, make sure you use the same survey both times and distribute to the same students. Compare the results and see how students’ views have changed on health issues.

September
• Team Orientation
 Frontline Team orientation is extremely important to being a successful team. Please explain the following:
  
  1. Purpose of Frontline
  2. Frontline Organizational Breakdown
  3. Definition of Advocacy
  4. How to be an Advocate
  5. Frontline Team officers and their responsibilities
  6. Frontline Incentive Program
  7. Frontline activities they will participate in monthly
8. Be sure to set rules for the team (i.e. behavior during meetings,   dedication to team, requirements to participate in activities, statewide event opportunities, etc…) with adult guidance, let the team set these rules. It has been proven that when youth set their own rules, they tend to follow them and reinforce the rules themselves with other youth.
 Before you jump right in, there are a few things you need to complete:
1. State your goal for the year.
2. Identify your target audience for each activity and those individuals who should be involved.
3. Know your material! This cannot be stressed enough!
4. Develop a plan of action.
5. Advocate, Advocate, Advocate!  
6. Celebrate your accomplishments after each activity.

October
• The 411 on Tobacco
Informing others about the effects of tobacco use is the first step in becoming an advocate for a tobacco-free community.  Educate students, school faculty and/or the community on the basic health effects of tobacco use such as effects of tobacco on the body, effects of secondhand smoke, explanation of spit tobacco and its effects.

To receive handouts, pamphlets, posters, or videos for your activity, please contact The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi for free materials. If you need Tobacco-Free Zone signs for your school campus, contact your local Community/Youth Partnership.  For more information on contacting the Community/Youth Partnership in your area, log on to www.healthy-miss.org.

• Red Ribbon Week
The third week in October is nationally known as “Red Ribbon Week.” Tobacco, alcohol, and other drug awareness activities should be conducted every day throughout this week. See the “Red Ribbon/Be Smart Week” section of your manual to find ideas for activities.

• Dead Night or Ghost Out
SADD teams have a great activity where students will make appearances of “dead people” every 23 minutes during a basketball game. This demonstrates the statistic that one person dies every 23 minutes from a drunk driving accident. Have signs on their backs that read “Drunk Driving Kills.” Have them wear all black with faces painted white. You could also include other drugs in your signs such as “Tobacco Kills” or “Cocaine Kills.”

November
• Great American Smokeout
Great American Smokeout is sponsored by the American Cancer Society. This national event takes place each year on the third Thursday of November. On this day, millions of Americans will stub out their cigarettes. Please see the “Suggested Activities” section for the activity called “Tips to Quit” Table. This activity should be conducted prior to the Great American Smoke out. Make sure you have permission to display this table in your school or church for a couple of weeks. Make sure a youth and adult are present and prepared to answer questions about quitting smoking or dipping, basic tobacco questions, and secondhand smoke. Cessation materials are available to use for this event. Contact The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi at (800) PHM-5437 for free materials.

December
• Send holiday cards to local smoke-free businesses
The purpose of this activity is for your Frontline team members to communicate to local business their holiday wishes and appreciation for their involvement in keeping the workplace free of smoke.

• Community Service Activity
Many Frontline Teams will participate in a number of community projects, such as the Angel Tree project, or adopting a less fortunate family. Also, many teams will volunteer their time at a community kitchen or shelter for the homeless serving meals. These projects serve a great educational purpose for youth and count as Frontline activities.

January
• Thank-you cards to State Legislators
The purpose of this activity is for your Frontline Team members to communicate their best wishes and appreciation to your state Representatives and Senators. These men and women serve in session for many months making laws that protect our well-being. Take this opportunity to educate them on what Frontline is and how you work in your community to make it healthier. A sample letter will be posted on this site soon!

• New Year’s Activity
Many people make New Year’s Resolutions. Take advantage of this opportunity to again offer help to those wanting to quit using tobacco products. Call The Partnerhship for a Healthy Mississippi to request Tobacco Quitline posters and brochures. Distribute these materials to friends, teachers, coaches, parents and orthers. Your local library and church are great places to distribute information.

Smoke-Free Sabbath
Each year The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi observes a Smoke-Free Sabbath, which is an opportunity to lift up concern for the harmful effects of tobacco use and protect people from the dangers of secondhand smoke. For more information on how your Frontline Team can participate, visit www.healthy-miss.org.

February
• Frontline's Statewide Advocacy Event (tentative)
Frontline's Statewide Advocacy Event an annual Frontline event where your local team takes its campaign to the next level. It is a great opportunity for your team to join hands with other teams from across the state for the same dynamic purpose. This event is tentative and dependant on other Partnership events and initiatives.

Healthy Heart Awareness

Materials needed:
• Two pieces of plastic aquarium tubing or another type of tubing about the diameter of the mouth of a gallon milk jug
• Large jar of petroleum jelly or shortening
• Two, one-gallon milk jugs
• Two pitchers of water  (you can use red food coloring to dye it red)
• Duct tape or another heavy tape

Directions:
First, line the inside of one piece of tubing with the petroleum jelly (make sure it is really thick).  Next, attach the tubing to the mouth of the milk jug with the tape. This represents the years of plaque build-up on the heart because of smoking.

Do the same thing with the other piece of tubing, except don’t line it with the petroleum jelly.  This represents a non-smokers heart. 

Take the pitchers of water and pour the water (blood) through the tubing.  You will find that the blood passes more quickly through the blood vessel that does not have the build-up in it. 

Make sure you go over the facts about smoking and the heart that are listed below. 

• Even though more than 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking-related illnesses, approximately 180,000 of these deaths are related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) annually.
(American Heart Association, “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2003 Update”; Institute of Medicine 2001)

•  Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure results in about 35,000 coronary heart disease deaths among nonsmokers each year. 
(American Heart Association, “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2003 Update”)

After quitting smoking, the additional risk of cardiovascular disease diminishes rapidly.  Excess risk for CVD from smoking is cut in half in the first year after quitting.  Fifteen years after quitting, risk for CVD is similar to the risk for someone who has never smoked. 
(American Heart Association, “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2003 Update”)

March
• Prepare for Spring Break
The week before your school’s Spring Break, educate the students on the importance of making healthy decisions. This is a great time to do the Informer activity: create posters with messages about the dangers of tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use. Post them around your school in the halls, classrooms, and bathrooms.

• Be Smart Week
This week is dedicated to making good decisions involving alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.  Tobacco, alcohol, and other drug awareness activities should be conducted every day throughout this week.

• Spring Break Festival
Many youth go on trips for Spring Break during the month of March. If your Frontline members are not taking a trip, host a Spring Break event! Depending on the funds available, this can be as big or small as you like. You can develop this event just for your Frontline Team or open it up to the community. Have fun games, food, arts and crafts, music and entertainment and educational booths set up. Make sure to promote it as a tobacco- and alcohol-free event. Be sure to include information about your Frontline organization. This can serve as a great recruiting tool!

April
• Tobacco Scavenger Hunt
This is a great team building activity and can get competitive. Decide whether you want the scavenger hunt to be confined to one location or held at multiple sites in your community. Divide youth into small groups. If possible, try to group students with others they don’t know that well. This should help improve communication among the team members and improve teamwork. Choose the items you want the students to find (i.e. toilet bowl cleaner–ingredient in cigarettes, sand or any type of metal symbolizing ingredients in spit tobacco; a coffee stirrer–breathing through it with your nose closed feels like you have emphysema; a napkin from a smoke-free restaurant, etc.). Set a time limit. The winning team of course gets something free! If possible, buy gift cards (in small amounts) to Wal-Mart, movie store, etc. When everyone returns, be sure to go over all the items, the statistics and what they symbolize. Be creative as you like and have fun!

• FREE to Frontline Orientation
Frontline officers can use this opportunity to prepare and make a presentation to eighth-grade FREE members.  Your presentation can include what they can look forward to in Frontline (activities, statewide advocacy event, etc…) FREE and Frontline officers can then, in turn, have a “Generation Free mixer” to recruit all eighth-graders.  This gives the upcoming freshman the opportunity to talk to current Frontline members about the activities and purpose of Frontline.

• Kick Butts Day
This is the day America’s teens stand up to tobacco companies. Every year, young people fight youth tobacco use in their communities. Kick Butts Day rallies and events take place in every state, and several nations, showing that kids are powerful voices in the fight against tobacco. See the Frontline web site, www.generationFREE.com or www.tobaccofreekids.org for details about activities or contests. Register your Kick Butts Day activity at www.kickbuttsday.org and get free stuff!

May
• End-of-school Activity
Have your Frontline Team members vote on what they want to end the year. This could serve as a reward for all their hard work they have done throughout the year.

• “World No Tobacco Day”
Observed annually on May 31, World No Tobacco Day is the only global event established to call worldwide attention to the impact of tobacco use on public health and reduce individual tobacco-dependence. For more information about how your team can get involved, check out www.wntd.com.

June and July
Summer months optional

• RAT and SWAT Summer Events
The Partnership hosts regional summer events throughout the state during June and July for students in grades K-6.  For more information or to find out if a regional summer event will be held you in your area, contact your local Community/Youth Partnership or the Frontline Coordinator.