Quitting for Youth

N-O-T on Tobacco (N-O-T)

Many young people who smoke want to quit. However, few access services to support their quit journey, in part because few services are developed for youth. The N-O-T on Tobacco (N-O-T) program is a voluntary youth tobacco cessation program created specifically for young people (aged 14-19) who want to quit.
N-O-T runs over 10 sessions:

• • Sessions 1-4: preparation
  • Session 5: Quit Day!
  • Session 6: Relapse and reinforcement

How Does it Work?

We train adult allies to facilitate the program in your school or community. Facilitators receive an in-person training session, handbook with resources, materials and evaluations. We even provide additional support for incentives for participants like food and quit packages.

Does it Work?

The N-O-T program has been highlighted as a promising practice by the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU) making it an effective method of achieving smoking cessation in youth. N-O-T was originally developed by the American Lung Association where an evaluation of over 12,000 youth who had participated in the program showed that 90 per cent had either quit or reduced.

N-O-T Ontario has had similar success. Evaluation of N-O-T Ontario shows that:

• All participants have either quit or reduced consumption at the end of the program
• Those that didn’t quit reduced their consumption by half

Participants noted a change in how they thought about smoking and had more positive thoughts about quitting.

It’s not just about smoking

Amongst other positive secondary outcomes, this program:

• Improved feelings of school connectedness
• Changed school environment around smoking
• Increased compliance to school policies
• Improved school attendance

If you are interested in running the N-O-T program with a group of young people, please contact us at info@lungontario.ca.

“I think that by sitting with their peers, talking about the same addictive behavior, it allowed them to be open and honest and they were actually able to identify when they started, why they started and the triggers that keep them engaged in smoking, which they probably have never done before. They were also in an environment that was safe, fun and consistent.”

– Adult facilitator of program