High School and Post-Secondary Schools

We understand that the primary focus of schools is fostering the education of students. But an increasingly important concern of educators is the health and well-being of their students. Recent policies have focused on restricting smoking in public places. Many schools and communities have enacted smoke-free environment policies that severely restrict smoking in school buildings and school events. Unfortunately, the use of smokeless tobacco is more difficult to restrict and control. Some smokers have begun using smokeless tobacco products so that they can continue to use tobacco in situations where they cannot smoke. Nationally, we have seen a significant increase in the use of snuff and chewing tobacco and many users have told us that they use these products in school. Many students who use smokeless tobacco want to quit, but they have few resources specifically designed to help them quit.

With the support and funding of the National Cancer Institute MyLastDip.com was developed to become a resource that your school can use to assist smokeless tobacco users aged 14-25 quit their addictive habit. MyLastDip will provide your students with an innovative and effective smokeless tobacco cessation program.

Our Web-based program offers many benefits to your school:

• It is free to any smokeless tobacco user who has access to a computer and has an email address, and expresses an interest in quitting.
• It reaches out to rural users or users who do not have access to any other assistance for helping them quit smokeless tobacco.
• It is an adjunct to any other program you have for tobacco cessation.

MyLastDip will increase the number of services for health promotion your school can provide to your students.

What can you do?

Please join with other educators around the country to help us with our promotion effort. Some of the specific activities that will help get the word out include adding a MyLastDip.com link to your school Web site and encouraging other high schools and post secondary schools in your state to do the same. It would also be very helpful to encourage the involvement of staff in your health center and/or student services/counseling center. MyLastDip can become an important ingredient to the services and recommendations that enhance their ability to serve this group of tobacco users.

Because we believe in the power of grass-roots networking, we hope you will inform your academic colleagues and staff about the importance of this innovative Web-based program so that they, too, can become involved. Finally, we ask our supporters to send us their own ideas about how to promote this important resource to students in school, and we’ll share these ideas with other educators through an online newsletter.

As a first step:

Please press the sign up button below to add your name to our list of MyLastDip supporters to help us stay in touch with you.