THURS-090 - Working with Youth as Community Consultants to Design an E-cigarette and Opioid Prevention Campaign
Thursday, April 23, 2026
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM PST
Location: Plaza Foyer, Plaza Level
Area of Responsibility: Area III: Implementation Keywords: Alcohol and Substance Abuse@@@Behavior Change & theories@@@Smoking and Tobacco, Subcompetencies: 6.5.4 Use current and emerging communication tools and trends (e.g., social media)., 6.6.2 Conduct outcome evaluations of communications. Research or Practice: Practice
Project Director Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas, United States
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Upon completion of this session, participants will learn about the challenges and complexities of implementing a peer-to-peer social media prevention campaign with youth.
Upon completion of this session, participants will learn about the importance of increasing our digital media/social media literacy/capacity, and how critical it is to the future of health promotion/communication efforts.
Upon completion of this session, participants will learn about how the organic knowledge of youth about their social context and their peers is critical to health promotion interventions.
Brief Abstract Summary: The purpose of this poster is to describe the efforts of the Keeping ICT SAFE (Substance Abuse Prevention Focusing on Empowerment) Project’s effort to reduce e-cigarette and opioid progression among young people. The community partnership works with several community-based organizations (a Federally Qualified Health Clinic, Local Children’s Home, Behavioral Health facility, and a Local church). Youth 12 to 17 use e-cigarettes more than traditional cigarettes and young adults 18 to 25 are more susceptible to using opioids. In our community young adults had more opioid emergency room visits than teens. The prevention campaign will feature the lived experiences of young people by using an evidence-based peer-to peer messaging strategy to reduce risks. The poster outlines the harmful impact of e-cigarette and opioid use, how e-cigarette use leads to other drugs and how the power of youth agency can prevent drug use among youth ages 12-25.
Detailed abstract description: Participants will engage with our intervention model, one that is based on the principle of peer-to-peer messaging. Our program recognizes the organic knowledge of young people, and their capacity to influence their environments. We believe these skills are deserving of compensation. As core consultants of our prevention campaign, these young consultants design and create the prevention content for our social media campaign. The coalition has many lessons learned that we want to share with the extended ecosystem of prevention and health promotion programs. Using community psychology practice competencies, the lived experiences of the community consultants are showcased. Limitations and future opportunities for research will be discussed.
