• Training youth in the Evolvement youth engagement program is a key strategy in implementing tobacco prevention campaigns in schools and communities across New Mexico. Measuring the number of youth being trained and engaged in a geographically-representative way helps to ensure widespread coverage of tobacco prevention campaign messaging and activities.
• There are no similar national measures, however, the tobacco prevention activities carried out by Evolvement youth support the goal of reducing adolescent tobacco use. For example, 10.6% of New Mexico high school youth currently smoke cigarettes, compared to 8.8% nationally. New Mexico’s youth smoking rate is approaching the Healthy People 2020 target of 10%.
• Locally, school districts are being recruited to participate in the Evolvement Program, and districts are also becoming increasingly interested in pursuing truly tobacco-free policies through the 24/7 campaign.
• In FY19-Q1, the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program’s contractor, Rescue, which oversees Evolvement program activities, signed on ten school districts and has preliminary commitment for another five districts. A total of 138 youth were trained on Evolvement, which surpassed the Q1 milestone of 100. 
• In the next quarter, memoranda of understanding for the remaining five or six school districts interested in joining Evolvement will be finalized. Several youth training events will be scheduled for youth within the first ten school districts that are already recruited.
   

• Rescue (The Behavior Change Agency)
• New Mexico school districts
• New Mexico Public Education Department
• Community-based organizations
• NMDOH – Health Promotion Teams
   

The Guide to Community Preventive Services recommends the following interventions to reduce adolescent smoking:

• Increasing the unit price of tobacco products.
• Mass media campaigns when combined with other interventions (e.g., youth engagement).
• Smoking bans and restrictions.
• Restricting minors' access to tobacco products through community mobilization with additional interventions.
   

The Tobacco Program will implement a statewide youth engagement strategy (Evolvement), alongside specific tobacco counter-marketing campaigns targeting high school youth.

Milestones: 

Q1: Train 100 youth leaders. Completed - 138 youth leaders trained.
Q2: Train 100 youth leaders.
Q3: Train 100 youth leaders.
Q4: Train 50 youth leaders.
 

The NMDOH Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program and Rescue, which oversees Evolvement program activities, were successful in recruitment, technical assistance, training, and follow-up efforts in FY18. In fact, efforts resulted in a total of 402 youth trained, exceeding the annual target of 350. Ten high schools from across New Mexico participated in the Evolvement Program, with youth completing a variety of local youth tobacco use prevention and engagement projects in their schools and communities. Four new school districts (Roswell, Pecos, Las Cruces, and Central) enacted 100% tobacco-free policies across their campuses in FY18, protecting thousands of youth, staff, parents, and visitors from the harms of secondhand smoke.