TUPE (Tobacco Use Prevention Education)
As the TUPE (Tobacco Use Prevention Education) Consultant for the Mendocino County Office of Education, I am available to provide Prevention focused presentations to districts within Mendocino County. These presentations are free to the districts and are adapted from Stanford’s “You and Me Vape Free” Curriculum. In addition to sharing information about tobacco and vaping, I emphasize overall addiction prevention by educating young people on brain development, the dopamine system, and healthy coping tools.
I have two presentations, one for students in 4th and 5th grade, and another for 6th grade and up. These presentations are best delivered in a classroom setting (not assembly style) and are about 45-60 minutes. I do ask that teachers help facilitate an anonymous, quick and simple google-form based pre and post survey with their students before and after my presentation so I can collect data on the impact of the presentation.
For inquiries and booking, please email me at: resiliencewithjen@gmail.com
If you are from a school site outside of Mendocino County, I am still available for private contract work on various topics including: Tobacco/Vaping Education, Addiction Prevention, Building Resilience, Stress Management and Mindfulness and more! As a Credentialed School Counselor turned Public Speaker, I am uniquely aware of how to engage students while managing the dynamics of a classroom and providing relevant content. Please email me with inquiries.
Testimonials from school-based presentations:
“Jen is engaging, entertaining and has great classroom management. She works hard to make her content relatable to the students so that they want to participate with her presentation(s).”
“Having observed the stress management and drug awareness presentations delivered in freshman advisory at Ukiah High School, I am thoroughly impressed by the engaging and relevant content tailored specifically for our students. As a seasoned educator with extensive experience, I can confidently say that the presentations not only captivate the students but also effectively convey crucial information in a manner that resonates with them. The approach taken is both thoughtful and impactful, making a significant difference in our students' understanding of these vital topics.”
“Jen works well with the kids and keeps them engaged and involved. They appreciate her communication style as she is very real with them.”
“Jen is super organized, great energy, communicates and connects with the students!!! Gives real, up to date information. We (myself and my students) look forward to seeing her again!!!”
FAQs
Q: Are these presentations really needed for elementary students??
A: Some elementary schools do unfortunately have students already bringing vapes to school (usually taking their siblings that they thought "looked cool"), but fortunately, some do not! In both scenarios, I have had a lot of success with my elementary presentation for 4th and 5th graders (and sometimes 6th, I usually have schools decide if they want the elementary or middle school version for their 6th graders) as I aim the elementary school version strongly at prevention from the lens of healthy coping skills and how tobacco/vaping companies are trying to trick kids with their marketing, why nicotine is dangerous for the developing brain, what their brain's "job" is during this developmental time, what addiction is, etc. For the elementary presentation, I combine and adapt the "You and Me Vape Free" curriculum from Stanford's toolkit.
Q: What about middle schoolers? Do they need this information?
A: Yes! We know exposure ramps up a ton once middle school hits, which is why I try to do the elementary one to really get kids thinking about healthy coping skills (as a method of overall lifelong addiction prevention) and then in middle school I do one a bit more targeted at why vaping is risky and harmful, being aware of personal risk factors for addiction, saying no, etc.
Q: What do you mean by “addiction prevention”?
A: After being a social/emotional school counselor at a large high school (approximately 1,700 students) for several years and focusing on drug education, stress management, addiction prevention and early intervention there, I realized if we are truly going to make an impact, we need to focus on addiction prevention. We know how hard it is to treat addiction, and the low success rates of rehabs, yet in our current culture where so many addiction-prone things are pushed on us from a young age, we need to start raising awareness about healthy coping skills for stress management, anxiety, etc so we don’t fall prey to all of the tantalizing things being dangled in front of our not-yet-developed brains as false coping strategies (ex: things that temporarily make us “feel good,” but don’t actually help in the long run and can actually create further issues down the road - think social media, nicotine, other drugs and alcohol, excessive screen use, etc). In addition, recognizing that over 90% of adults struggling with addiction started using before they were 18 (source), I realized we need to focus on the idea of addiction prevention a lot earlier...!