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Creating Lung Friendly Environments for Youth

Strategies for addressing asthma, tobacco, clean air and more in schools and community organizations

#1 illness-related reason that students miss school is asthma.
95% of smokers try their first cigarette before the age of 21.
4x as many occupants in schools per sq. ft. as office buildings.

Serving Communities for Over 120 Years

Your partner in lung health and education

The American Lung Association understands the importance of community participation and education, especially when it comes to creating healthy habits and awareness for today’s kids. We’ve put together the latest in lung health resources to help you serve your students and community and create a healthier world for all.

How can the American Lung Association Help?

The American Lung Association can provide helpful resources to schools or organizations to meet the requirements of the School Health Index (SHI), developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The SHI is an online self-assessment and planning tool developed in partnership with school administrators and staff, school health experts, parents, and national nongovernmental health and education agencies to:

Enable schools to identify strengths and weaknesses of health and safety policies and programs.
Enable schools to develop an action plan for improving student health that can be incorporated into the School Improvement Plan.
Engage teachers, parents, students, and the community in promoting health-enhancing behaviors and better health.

Community involvement in schools is important to the learning, development, and health of students.

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child, or WSCC model, is student-centered and emphasizes the role of the community in supporting the school, the connections between health and academic achievement and the importance of evidence-based school policies and practices. Every school has a unique set of needs. To better serve their students, school leaders and staff can incorporate the WSCC model components as they see fit.

 

 

With help from school leaders, community agencies and groups, they can collaborate with schools to provide valuable resources for student health and learning.

 

 

Let’s Get Started

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