Student fight tobacco use

Manor High School’s One Life, One Goal program has been spreading a tobacco prevention message to the community since 2010.

The group, part of a larger effort known as Break the Chain, participated in a teen leadership summit in Hunt, Texas, last weekend. The summit was sponsored by the Texas School Safety Center, based at Texas State University – San Marcos

“Students these days are becoming more aware of how tobacco companies use marketing tactics to manipulate their target audience—youth—to get them to smoke,” said program manager Adam Niederpruem. “Young people want choice and they want to be heard. Break the Chain empowers students to choose their own ways to spread the message of tobacco prevention.”

Niederpruem will utilize comedy, improvisation and creative teambuilding activities to build “workgroups” at 10 or more after-school programs before the end of the school year.

Break the Chain brings high school and middle school students together to learn how they can fight the pervasive messages of the tobacco industry, add to their leadership experience and make their communities a healthier place.

The student-centered Break the Chain movement is sponsored by the Austin/Travis County Tobacco Prevention & Control Coalition.

“The Break the Chain movement is composed of dedicated youth in our community who want to break the cycle of tobacco addiction; they know it’s easier to never use tobacco products than to break the habit ,” said program coordinator Megan Cermak. “The Movement is a part of the City’s Live
Tobacco-Free Austin campaign whose goal is to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke through policy change in Travis County.”