If you are interested in applying for the 2007-2008 funding, email us your contact information and we will include you in the mailing when we request applications in the Spring of 2007.

Other ways to get involved:

• Friday Night Live/Club Live (805) 963-1433
• SB County Science Fair (805) 681-5407
• Health Fairs (805) 681-5407
• Undercover Tobacco Buys (805) 681-5407
• Santa Barbara Parks and Rec. Teen Programs (805) 897-2650
• World No Tobacco Day (805) 681-5407
• Kick Butts Day (805) 681-5407
• American Cancer Society: Teens Kick Ash (805) 963-1576
• Swing Kids Productions (805) 887-0176
• Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation (805) 564-5418

Local Youth Smoking Data

• Contrary to popular belief…in California six out of seven people DON'T Smoke!
• Tobacco use is declining for youth in our county, in the state and in the nation.
• More than half of all smokers begin smoking before the age of 14! 90% begin before the age of 19! Totaling more than 3,000 a day…one third of these teens will die prematurely. (FDA, 1997/CDC, 1994)
• Young people underestimate the addictive nature of tobacco. 73% of daily teen smokers who think they can quit are still smoking 5 years later; nine out of ten teens want to quit. (CDC, 1994 /FDA, 1996)
• 70.3% of youth in Santa Barbara County believe that the majority of youth smoke. In reality only 13.1% of Santa Barbara youth smoke! (C-STATS, 2004)
• The addiction rate for smoking is higher than the addiction rates for marijuana, alcohol, or cocaine; and symptoms of serious nicotine addiction often occur only weeks or even just days after youth “experimentation” with smoking first begins. (DiFranza, J.R., et.al., 2000, and others).
• 70% of teen smokers say that given the chance to do things differently, they would not have started to smoke. (GALLUP Organization., 1992)
• Smoking actually kills more than 450,000 people a year. That's more than homicide, suicide, car accidents, fires, alcohol and illegal drug use COMBINED. It's like three jumbo jets crashing every day. (FDA, 1997)
• If you don't smoke before the age of 18, you probably never will. (FDA, 1995)
• Smoking as a teenager causes permanent changes to DNA in the lungs and forever increases the risk of lung cancer. The younger the smoking starts, the more damage is done (UCSF, School of Medicine, 1999).
• Teenage girls almost double their risk of developing breast cancer if they take up smoking within five years of their first menstrual periods. (British Columbia Cancer Agency study 2002)

WEB Resources

If you are student or teacher and you want to know more about tobacco and its effects, we recommend that you explore the many useful web resources.

Need Help Quitting?

Call the friendly staff at the Tobacco Prevention Settlement Program for more information: (805) 681-5407.