American Lung Association's N-O-T Program Comes to Collinwood High School
Joe White is definitely a man on a mission with a group of young people in four classes at Collinwood High School. For the past ten weeks, under the auspices of The Centers for Families and Children and the Cuyahoga County District Board of Health, he has been facilitating the American Lung Association’s N-O-T (Not On Tobacco) program at both Collinwood and Glenville High Schools.
Funding for this program comes from the Ohio Department of Health/Federal Government Bureau of Child and Family Health Services’ Child and Family Health Services Program. This is the first time that the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) has offered this program. Upcoming, on April 14, 2015 Mr. James Cotton of the American Lung Association will visit Collinwood and deliver the keynote address to the student body.
N-O-T is a voluntary smoking cessation program for teens, ages 14-19. Over the course of the program, participants learn to identify reasons for smoking, healthy alternatives to tobacco use, and people who will support them in their efforts to quit or never to start. In addition to stressing healthy lifestyle behaviors, the N-O-T curriculum helps high school students improve life skills.
According to the American Lung Association, “studies of 12,000 teens participating in the N-O-T program nationally found that approximately 90 per cent of the teens enrolled in the N-O-T program either quit smoking or cut back.
Because of his community ties and what White describes as “a bag of careers,” he has been able to share lessons he has learned about smoking from personal life choices and experiences.
“I’m the one who escaped first level nicotine addiction,” noted White. “I can relate to what I preach and they’re listening,” he said.
Gail Greenberg
Gail Greenberg is the library media specialist at Collinwood High School.