Program Goals, Description & Impact

Greg Griggs - NC Tar Wars Coordinator

Program Description and Principle Goal

Family physicians, parents, teachers and other healthcare providers visit classes to present the hour-long interactive curriculum that focuses on the short-term, image-based consequences of tobacco use and how to think critically about tobacco advertising. At the conclusion of the presentation, students are encouraged to create posters that reaffirm the positive Tar Wars message. The posters are sent to the NCAFP/F, where a panel of physician judges selects a statewide winner. That winning poster is submitted into the Tar Wars National Poster Contest. You may view the nation's winning posters from the 2001-2002 school year at www.tarwars.org. The ultimate goal is to discourage tobacco use among the nation's youth through an interactive format, community involvement and education.

Target Audience

Tar Wars focuses on the fourth- and fifth-grades. Targeting this age group is important for the following reasons:

• 18.4% of North Carolina middle school students and 38.3% of high school students are current users of a tobacco product. (NC Youth Tobacco Survey, 1999)
• The percentage of students reporting current tobacco use increases steadily with grade -- 10.6% of North Carolina 6th grade students report current tobacco use, compared to 45.2% of 12th grade students. (NC Youth Tobacco Survey, 1999)
• One in six students indicated having smoked their first whole cigarette before age 11. (NC Department of Public Instruction, 1995)

Several studies have shown that if students are reached at earlier ages, the rates of becoming a tobacco-user diminish considerably. Research from a 1998 University of North Carolina study indicated that there "is a need to begin smoking prevention classes very early, in elementary school, and a need to especially target disadvantaged youth". (Journal of Adolescent Health, 1998) Since 49% of North Carolina's fourth- and fifth-graders are disadvantaged, Tar Wars is an excellent tool to discourage tobacco use and help promote a healthy lifestyle for our state's youth. Tar Wars focuses its efforts on prevention by intervening prior to the onset of most tobacco use, in contrast to other programs that delay reaching youth until the teen years when tobacco use has already begun and is at a serious level.

Endorsements and Support

The Tar Wars curriculum has been approved by the NC Department of Instruction for use to meet teacher requirements to provide a unit on tobacco use for fifth-graders. Additionally, Michael Ward, State School Superintendent, has stated his endorsement and approval of Tar Wars.

North Carolina Tar Wars has been named an effective partner of the Focus on Success! North Carolina's Best program with North Carolina Public Schools. You may visit www.dpi.state.nc.us/ncbest/community/community_partners.html for more details on this partnership.

In 2002, the NCAFP Foundation was successful in establishing a Tar Wars collaboration with the NC PTA. Tannis Nelson, NC PTA President, has indicated her full support and is assisting the NCAFP to conduct presenter-training sessions for high school cadet teachers and PTA members across the state.

North Carolina Tar Wars is currently being supported by several organizations, including the North Carolina Hospital Association/Duke Endowment, the North Carolina Medical Society, the North Carolina Pediatric Society, and Catawba Memorial Hospital.

The most important endorsement comes from the students that go through the Tar Wars program. Following are a few quotes from some students, teachers, principals and other people involved from across the state:

Students-

"Thank you for coming to talk to my class about smoking and tobacco. I liked the part when we got to feel what it was to breathe like a smoker." - Ben

"I really enjoyed you coming to talk to us about tobacco and advertising. My favorite activity was the one with the straws." - Sara

"I learned a lot from you. If one of my friends is smoking, I will try to get them over it." - Courtney

"Thank you for taking your time to our class and explaining to us what tobacco can do you, so when I get home I going to tell my mom to quit even though I told her a hundred times." - Patrick

Principals, Teachers, Counselors, Curriculum Specialists

"I would love to have you back for Tar Wars. I think that it is an excellent program." - Becky Barger, Clemmons Elementary

"Hi Tish. I'm cranked up for Tar Wars 2003-04 and I want the new curriculum! Do you know if it will be the same? We will be calling the schools by Sept 19th to establish dates, and I need to do a training by Sept. 8th!" - Nina Lovern, BSN,RN,C,CDE

"Tar Wars has been presented in many of our elementary schools in the past. Tobacco use prevention is a critical issue in our society, with tobacco-related deaths still a leading cause of death in our country, not to mention our county. Additionally, according to student surveys conducted in area middle school during 2000, the average age of first use for tobacco in our county is 11 and tobacco use is often the gateway to other drug use. As you know, elementary age is NOT too early to have this conversation. Tar Wars supplements the tobacco prevention information presented by your Super Kids officer. Many, many teachers send requests to me asking for Super Kids to be conducted as a longer program. While we don't have that as a reality now, "Tar Wars" would be an excellent way to extend the discussion with our elementary age students of making positive healthy choices, whether it is presented prior to or after your Super Kids program is conducted." - Nancy Dixon, WSFCS Safe & Drug Free School Program Specialist

Impact

Since the program's inception in 1999, NC Tar Wars has reached more than 12,000 fourth-and-fifth graders across the state in more than 100 elementary schools. This year the Cadet Teacher program at Laney High School in Wilmington participated in a training session and is presenting Tar Wars to the elementary schools in the Wilmington area. We believe this will have a significant impact on both the elementary program participants and high school student presenters.

To measure student response to the program, a web-based evaluation questionaire is given before and after the presentation. Click here for results from North Carolina in 2001-2002. back to top

What's New This Year?

The Curriculum: The 2006-2007 guide is available to download and print at www.tarwars.org. This website is full of tools to help you present Tar Wars successfully. You can also view each state's winning poster for the 2003 contest. Guides are available in English and Spanish. Be sure you have the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat, 5.0. You can download this free at www.acrobat.com. Older versions will cause problems as you try to download the curriculum. If you prefer, we can mail a curriculum to you free of charge. Also new, the curriculum's pre- and post- tests can now be completed online at the Tar Wars website. AAFP prefers that the students complete the tests online, however, if the school does not wish to do this, the test can be printed from the website and administered to the students. If the tests are not completed online, please be sure to mail the completed copies to the attention of Greg Griggs.