WOONSOCKET, R.I., March 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CVS Health (NYSE:
CVS) today announced that it will award $10
million in 2018 to continue to support youth smoking
prevention and education programs and strategies throughout
the United States. The new
commitments, funded through the company and the CVS Health
Foundation, are part of Be The First, CVS Health's five-year
$50 million initiative to help
deliver the nation's first tobacco-free generation.
"After just two years, we're encouraged by our contributions to
a continuing decline in youth smoking rates, however far too many
young people are still using a variety of harmful tobacco and
nicotine products, such as e-cigarettes and vapes, that facilitate
initiation of tobacco use," said Troyen Brennan, M.D., M.P.H. and
Chief Medical Officer for CVS Health. "By reducing the number of
people that are exposed to tobacco, we can reduce the prevalence of
tobacco-related diseases including lung cancer, heart disease and
stroke, and make a significant impact on the health of our next
generation."
Since it was introduced in 2016, Be The First has
delivered meaningful support to the country's ongoing efforts to
prevent smoking and nicotine addiction among youth which is
critical to ending tobacco use in the
United States. By funding programs with the nation's leading
tobacco control advocates, including the American Cancer Society,
American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, CATCH
Global Foundation and Truth Initiative, CVS Health has helped reach
more than 4 million young people with effective anti-smoking
education and healthy behavior programming and is helping 146
colleges and universities advocate for, adopt and implement
tobacco-free campus policies.
Among the new investments being delivered in 2018 are a
$1.4 million grant to the
play2PREVENT Lab at the Yale Center for Health & Learning Games
and a $500,000 grant to the
Stanford University School of Medicine
over three years to help enhance and scale current pilot programs
to reach more students across the country.
- Yale's smokeSCREEN Game −
The smokeSCREEN game from the play2PREVENT Lab at the Yale Center
for Health & Learning Games is a highly interactive
narrative-based videogame app in which players "travel" through
life, facing the range of challenges that young teens face with a
dedicated focus on youth decision-making about smoking and tobacco
use and includes strategies for both smoking prevention and
cessation.
- Stanford's Tobacco Prevention
Toolkit − The Tobacco Prevention Toolkit from Stanford School
of Medicine is a free, online resource for anyone who works with
youth. It contains a set of eight modules providing interactive
lessons and activities focused on e-cigarettes and vapes, including
JUULs, hookah, smokeless tobacco and cigarettes; messages on
nicotine addiction, information and resources concerning positive
youth development; and information about school tobacco policies
and tobacco control efforts. The Toolkit is being used in every
state in the United States.
"We appreciate the funding from the CVS Health Foundation, which
supports our work to expand the content and disseminate the Toolkit
across the country," said Bonnie
Halpern-Felsher, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford
School of Medicine and Founder and Executive Director of the
Tobacco Prevention Toolkit. "We are grateful for the company's
investment in such an important goal of making the next generation
tobacco free."
CVS Health expects its investments in the Stanford Toolkit and
Yale's smokeSCREEN game app will reach
more than 200,000 adolescents each year, through schools and other
youth serving organizations. The company is also working to help
expand access to the program later in 2018 through numerous mobile
platforms, including the Google and Apple app stores.
"The grant from the CVS Health Foundation on this critical
initiative not only allows a platform to expand the reach of our
work with serious videogame interventions, but also holds the
promise of significantly impacting the problem of cigarette smoking
and the rapidly emerging concern of e-cigarette use in
adolescents," said Lynn Fiellin,
M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Yale
Center for Health & Learning Games.
Additionally, the CVS Health Foundation will build on the
success of partnerships with Truth Initiative and the American
Cancer Society to increase the number of tobacco-free college
campuses later in 2018. Grants will be available to help more than
70 additional colleges and universities across the country advocate
for, adopt and implement 100 percent smoke- and tobacco-free campus
policies, as part of a shared goal to expand the number of campuses
across the country that prohibit smoking and tobacco use.
"In the two years since we introduced Be The First, we've
seen very good progress, but we know there is much more to be done
in schools, on college campuses and in our communities," said
Eileen Howard Boone, president of
the CVS Health Foundation. "We recognize that by collaborating with
experts from academia and the public health community and
aggressively investing in innovative strategies to reduce smoking
and tobacco use, we can protect our youth from this preventable
health risk and bring us one step closer to realizing our goal of a
tobacco-free generation."
Be The First is funded through CVS Health and the CVS
Health Foundation, and comprises comprehensive anti-smoking
education, tobacco control advocacy and healthy behavior
programming in partnership with organizations uniquely positioned
to tackle this public health challenge. For more program
information, visit www.cvshealth.com/bethefirst.
About CVS Health
CVS Health is a pharmacy innovation company helping people on
their path to better health. Through its more than 9,800 retail
locations, more than 1,100 walk-in medical clinics, a leading
pharmacy benefits manager with more than 94 million plan members, a
dedicated senior pharmacy care business serving more than one
million patients per year, expanding specialty pharmacy services,
and a leading stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plan,
the company enables people, businesses and communities to manage
health in more affordable and effective ways. This unique
integrated model increases access to quality care, delivers better
health outcomes and lowers overall health care costs. Find more
information about how CVS Health is shaping the future of health at
https://www.cvshealth.com.
About the CVS Health Foundation
The CVS Health Foundation is a private charitable organization
created by CVS Health that works to build healthier communities,
enabling people of all ages to lead healthy, productive lives. The
Foundation provides strategic investments to nonprofit partners
throughout the U.S. who help increase community-based access to
health care for underserved populations, create innovative
approaches to chronic disease management and provide tobacco
cessation and youth prevention programming. We also invest in
scholarship programs that open the pathways to careers in pharmacy
to support the academic aspirations of the best and brightest
talent in the industry. Our philanthropy also extends to supporting
our colleagues' spirit of volunteerism through Volunteer Challenge
grants to nonprofits where they donate their time and fundraising
efforts. To learn more about the CVS Health Foundation and its
giving, visit www.cvshealth.com/social-responsibility.
Media Contacts:
Joseph Goode
Joseph.Goode@CVSHealth.com
401-770-9820
Mary Gattuso
Mary.Gattuso@CVSHealth.com
401-770-9811
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