Union County Community Support & Outreach staff have been recognized with the prestigious Transforming Health Youth Champion Award presented by the Region 4 Tobacco Free-Alliance. Their contributions to implementing a new tobacco use prevention curriculum in Union County Public Schools (UCPS) have demonstrated their dedication to reducing death and health issues associated with tobacco use, which has been on the rise in youth due to the popularity of vaping and e-cigarettes.

More than 95% of adult tobacco users began smoking before the age of 21, which makes tobacco prevention efforts in our schools a necessity. To this end, County staff organized student prevention events in UCPS middle schools, presented webinars as part of the UCPS parent education series (available for viewing on the Tobacco Prevention webpage), and participated in a point-of-sale search project with Wingate University. Additionally, helpful information and resources about the harmful effects of smoking, vaping and tobacco use are frequently included in Union County's weekly community e-newsletter, Horizon, which reaches more than 60,000 email subscribers. County staff have also used grant funding twice in the last two years to share billboard messages about the harmful effects of vaping.