BANGOR – More than 30 female students at the Penobscot Job Corps Center gathered for the first of eight weekly meetings on April 6 to begin the process of quitting smoking through a new “Butt Out” campaign sponsored by the school and the Bangor Region Partners for Health.
The program is sponsored with a $4,650 grant Partners for Health received from Healthy Maine Partnerships under the Bureau of Health. The money is provided from funds from the state’s tobacco settlement.
The “Butt Out” campaign on the Job Corps campus is geared toward the school’s female population because tobacco companies are targeting young females, Bangor Region Partners For Health Director Janet Spencer said.
“One of our main objectives is to reach populations that are either underserved or targeted by the tobacco industry,” she said. “Right now the tobacco industry is targeting young women ages 18 to 24.”
The eight-week program is directed and designed by what the students want to learn and show interest in while maintaining the goal of stopping the use of tobacco products.
The group will focus on nutrition and body image, anxiety and stress, exercise and prevention of weight gain after quitting, relaxation, anger management, healthy relationships, and coping skills, but will include any topics the women wish to explore, Spencer said.
The program was funded for the participation of 50 women and though there were 30 attending the first meeting, interest is growing rapidly. The group could easily reach full capacity soon, said Job Corps Student Leadership Coordinator Jennifer Holcomb.
“The young ladies took ownership of the program immediately creating what the next weeks are like,” Holcomb said.
At the conclusion, those who have made it through successfully will be taken on a field trip as a reward, Holcomb said. Students will decide the trip destination.
“There was a lot if interest in healthy activities like hiking, being outdoors, going to Bar Harbor,” she said.
The program will not stop at helping the young women at Job Corps quit smoking, Spencer said. The program also is gathering information for future programs and campaigns on what makes young women want to quit smoking, what would have made them never want to start and what made them want to begin.
It is estimated that nearly 70 percent of Job Corps students smoke cigarettes, Spencer said. Since women make up nearly half the student body, the proportion of women smokers to nonsmokers is shocking.
For that reason, Bangor Region Partners for Health and Penobscot Job Corps Center have decided to make a strong effort to help women students quit by informing them about the specific set of dangers to female smokers and how smoking affects so many facets of their lives.
For info on Job Corps, visit http://jobcorps.doleta.gov or call (800) 949-1937, ext. 305.
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