The City of Ballarat is partnering with several local organisations, schools and sporting clubs to implement a program designed to empower young people to say 'no' to vaping.
Funded by health promotion foundation VicHealth, the Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project is designed to prevent the uptake of vaping among young people aged 10-25 in the region.
The program will target several key groups, encouraging authentic, peer-to-peer conversations and the development of youth-led initiatives.
Schools
The Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project will engage 22 schools across the municipalities of the City of Ballarat, Hepburn Shire Council and Moorabool Shire Council. Schools will receive support from local health organisations to implement Quit Victoria's Seeing Through the Haze curriculum resources. Participating schools will also receive funding to action the innovative and exciting anti-vaping campaigns designed by students as part of the curriculum. These student-led campaigns could feature videos, podcasts, posters or social media content.
Sports clubs
The Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project will engage about 10 local sports clubs with the participating municipalities. Club members will be supported to develop a youth-led anti-vaping campaign, for distribution around their club. Sports clubs will also be supported to develop a 'no-vape' policy, or come up with other policies relating to vaping, should they choose to do so.
Universities
The Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project will work with several university students to develop student-led anti-vaping projects, to be implemented on their university campuses.
Stockland Wendouree
The Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project will engage young people from the local community at Stockland Wendouree to inform and develop anti-vaping prevention projects.
Health practitioners and General Practitioners (GPs)
The Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project will support local GPs and health practitioners to have conversations with their young patients about the health impacts of vaping.
City of Ballarat Mayor Cr Des Hudson said the Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project was a fantastic display of collaboration between local organisations to reduce the impact of vaping on the community.
"We know that a lot of young people are heavily influenced by their peers at school or their coaches at their sports club," he said.
"This initiative is about tapping into these networks and giving young people the tools to warn each other about vaping through real, authentic stories."
The City of Ballarat will deliver the Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project in partnership with the following organisations:
- Ballarat Community Health (BCH)
- Grampians Public Health Unit (GPHU)
- Moorabool Shire Council (MSC)
- Hepburn Shire Council (HSC)
- Western Health (WH)
- Central Highlands Rural Health (CHRH)
- Federation University (Fed Uni)
- Western Victoria Primary Health Network (WVPHN)
- Sports Central (SC)
The Central Highlands Vaping Prevention Project is part of the broader Vape-Free Victoria project, which involves 29 local councils, five universities, five sporting bodies and teams, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, Quit Victoria and the Victorian Government.
VicHealth, Quit Victoria and the Department of Health will provide guidance and support to these organisations throughout the life of the project.
