S.O.D.A.P.O.P. GIRLS

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Girls that are of theage 10-17 years old meet twice a month during the school year at our offices and sometimes the girls like to host the meetings at their home. The overall goal is to provide information and support on Underage Drinking Prevention and be role models.

With parental consent, our girls come to us by peer referral. Their friends ask them to join us at one of our two monthly meetings were then they may choose to sign up and become a SODAPOP Girl. Our girls learn about the dangers and consequences of alcohol and other drugs use.

The girls must attend group discussions, 2 overnight workshops, and participate in two community/school/church events that are performed (sing, dance, skit, poetry) by the girls, voice a commitment to abstain from alcohol and other drug use while they learn new life skills.

Tobacco Prevention

As you know, tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of death worldwide! Parents Together and Clean Teens will utilize our best practice efforts to expand on tobacco issues through our programs that target minority populations. African-Americans start smoking later than white Americans but fewer quit once they start smoking. Smoking prevalence rates were similar among African Americans adults (27%) and White adults (25%). However the smoking rate is higher among African American men (32%) than White men (27%). African American women (22%) and White women (23%) smoke at a similar rate.

African-Americans have a higher nicotine dependency. Nicotine addiction afflicts 34% of black adults versus 28% of white adults and 27% of Hispanic adults, according to a 1989 survey by the Simmons Market Research Bureau. This is why lung cancer and heart disease rates are higher among African-Americans.

African-Americans smoke approximately 35% fewer cigarettes per day than white Americans but are more likely to be long-term smokers. 80% of African-American smokers smoke menthol cigarettes compared to only 25% of white smokers. The most popular brands are Kool, Newport and Salem.

The tobacco industry has strong ties with the African-American community by both benefiting them and by killing them perhaps more than any other enterprise. The tobacco industry was well ahead of most corporate America when it began using black models in ads, placing advertisements in black-oriented media, sponsoring black civil leaders and politicians when no one else would, and hiring and promoting black employees. The tobacco companies made the African-American community economically dependent on them while at the same time heavily targeting the African-American community to smoke through advertising and creating special brands of menthol cigarettes in an attempt to appeal to blacks.
The ties between the tobacco companies and the African-American community are being challenged as awareness grows of the heavy toll tobacco takes on minorities and the industry’s strategic efforts to lure them to smoke.

In the state of Michigan, 25.2% of the adult population smokes and in Washtenaw County, 23% of the adult population smokes; causing the state to rank 13th in smoking prevalence in the U.S. There are more than 15,000 smoking-related deaths each year in Michigan. This is one-fifth of all deaths, a toll greater than the total number of deaths from alcohol, heroin, cocaine, car accidents, homicide, suicide, fires, and AIDS combined. These numbers contribute to Michigan’s number one ranking in chronic disease mortality rates in the nation. The economic impact of smoking each year exceeds $2 billion in Michigan from health care costs and lost productivity due to smoking-related diseases.