Rocky Mountain Center for Health Promotion and Education

This year, the award goes to: Delta Middle School

Delta Middle School has been a strong and consistent supporter of incorporating tobacco education into their school curricula in many ways. Miriam Helmsing and Julie Mottern started with the Life Skills curriculum in 2001 and have successfully incorporated this curriculum into their PE and science program for several years. Four other teachers at Delta Middle School have undergone the Life Skills training in 2007. One of those teachers, Evan Cummings the 6th grade science teacher, incorporates a special tobacco education unit into his science curriculum each fall. All 6th grade classes received the tobacco education training in 2006 and 2007. He has specially adapted the science class curriculum on human lung functioning to include the detrimental effects of tobacco. He uses a variety of strategies specifically address smoking and spit tobacco. He is also very active in helping coordinate the C-Ride, Cactus Marketing’s tobacco awareness campaign, to stop at his school each year. He is a very strong advocate for tobacco prevention. Another teacher, Karen Wolfram the school counselor, incorporates tobacco education in her counseling sessions and her after school groups, which are usually high-risk groups.

Delta Middle School has demonstrated that they are a leader in tobacco education and prevention in the Delta County School District by consistently incorporating tobacco education and prevention into many areas of curricula to capture everyday learning opportunities for their students to be tobacco free.

This year, the partnership award goes to: Jefferson County School District and the Jefferson County Department of Health & Environment

With tremendous gratitude—honoring their strong collaboration, flawless expertise and solid support—the Jefferson County R-1 District would like to nominate our exemplary partners at the Jefferson County Department of Health and Environment’s Tobacco Prevention Initiative. During this current grant year we estimate that collaboratively we have served 13 Middle Schools, 17 High Schools, 6 option or charter schools and a dozen elementary schools. Although this does not cover our entire student population, it is a tremendous gain of relevant tobacco control educational activities and resources that have reached our school communities—the like of which has never occurred in Jeffco before!

As our community partners at 11 Tobacco Free Schools Policy Checklist lunches, these folks showered our schools with information, resources and technical support follow-up. They have made personnel in our schools feel so comfortable and motivated to promote a healthy environment; it has become typical that after JCDHE’s initial contact in a school that additional requests are made by that same school demonstrating the sustainability of program service that JCDHE has so finely tuned!

JCDHE has worked together with the district to provide tobacco control activities by using capacity building and cross-age teaching strategies in six Jeffco Schools that have a high proportion of disparate populations. Students in three high schools have been trained (with Jeffco Health Staff in the lead) to teach upper elementary students in the Breathe Easy Project. Parents, and even the mayor of the community, plan to attend the half day events at each of the schools. Tobacco information, resources, media, refusal skills, and secondhand smoke will all be a part of the student and community learning.

TPI has additionally continued to provide technical support to our over 60 trained NOT facilitators in the district. When schools request support around recruitment for NOT or additional resources—our health department is there! Additionally, they have collaborated with us to present at the Jefferson County School PTA Conference and have joined with us to provide information for the Columbine Community Health Fair. We have over 500 Bus Drivers in the District-and of course; the JCDHE has been right there to offer these folks education about Jeffco’s Tobacco Free School Policy and support in their own personal wellness.

One of the most wonderful gifts that the health department has created for us was the hiring of a half time staff (Tracey Brummet) to assist Jefferson County School’s Tobacco Prevention Program to reach greater numbers of youth and schools with the comprehensive tobacco programming. It is truly Christmas every day when you have a partner like JCDHE—there are always unexpected surprises, a warm community response, something for everyone and best of all….you can count on them every year! We couldn’t have it better!