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This paper describes lessons learned while planning a statewide conference to increase the knowledge of tobacco control advocates and promote implementation of the Alabama Comprehensive Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Plan (Plan) within the state. The Plan has three overall goals: preventing youth from becoming tobacco users; promoting treatment of tobacco dependency through promotion of, and increased access to, cessation programs; and reducing exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. It emphasizes three key prevention components: schools, public education and community mobilization, and merchant education and public awareness of laws. Conference participants attended general sessions and selected workshops (teaching communities, mobilizing others for change, eliminating cigarette smoke, understanding the MSA, encouraging youth to abstain, helping smokers quit, serving as media spokesperson, and partnering with local media). This paper examined the background of the plan; planning methods; and lessons learned related to specifying a target audience, recruiting collaborators, selecting date and location, marketing and promotion, and meeting logistics. (SM)

This report summarizes short-term impacts of the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP) demonstration, which helped at-risk high school-age youth graduate and enroll in postsecondary education or training. QOP involved intensive case management and mentoring emphasizing after school supplemental academic education, developmental activities, and community service. It served a single cohort of youth from ninth grade in 1995 through fall 2000. A local community based organization in each of six inner city communities and one rural community teamed with a school to implement and operate a QOP program. The study examined how well the program was implemented at each site, how much it cost, how much time enrollees spent on program activities, and how QOP affected enrollees in the short term. Data from site visits, QOP conferences, conference calls with QOP staff, and student surveys indicated that QOP achieved short-term success in raising high school completion rates and enrollment in postsecondary education or other training. It did not improve grades and achievement test scores or reduce risky behaviors. QOP benefited enrollees in the middle of the eligible grade distribution more than enrollees at the top or bottom. Most enrollees attended very few program activities. Impact varied by site. Impacts for the whole QOP demonstration were substantially attributable to the impacts of two sites. (SM)

This policy brief highlights the interrelationship between sports participation and teen pregnancy prevention, noting barriers that have prevented sports from being utilized in teen pregnancy prevention. Discrimination against girls and women in school sports persists 30 years after Congress enacted Title IX, and this prevents girls and young women from fully participating in school sports and sports programs not affiliated with schools. Research suggests that the discipline, strength, and self-esteem that sports fosters in girls and young women can play a major role in preventing teen pregnancy and that participation in sports is important in the lives of many young women who are at risk for teen pregnancy and who may lack other sources of empowerment (e.g., girls of color and girls from low income families). Although state and federal laws are clear about requiring equal treatment of girls and boys in sports receiving public financial assistance, the written and unwritten policies of many schools and sports programs are not. Recommendations for school administrators and personnel include: parents and other individuals not affiliated with the school must be proactive in ensuring girls' rights to participate in sports; schools and policymakers must ensure that girls do not "stand on the sidelines" during physical education; and sports programs should hire more women coaches and athletic directors. (Contains 18 endnotes.) (SM)