Truth Initiative And Kaiser Permanente, In Collaboration With The American Heart Association And EVERFI, Named 2021 Halo Award Winners

Vaping: Know the truth earns Silver in Best Health Initiative category

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May 28, 2021, 09:53 ET

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Truth Initiative and Kaiser Permanente, in collaboration with the American Heart Association and EVERFI, have been named the winners of a 2021 Silver Halo Award in the Best Health Initiative Category for their work on Vaping: Know the truth, the national vaping prevention curriculum and quitting resource for students.

Engage for Good's Halo Awards recognize corporate social initiatives and cause marketing campaigns in North America.

Launched in December 2020, Vaping: Know the truth aims to educate America's youth about the health dangers of e-cigarette usage and reverse the pervasive vaping epidemic. This digital course was developed as part of Truth Initiative's nationally recognized youth anti-vaping truth campaign and includes resources for students who vape to quit through its This is Quitting text message program, which is already helping nearly 325,000 youth and young adults to stop using e-cigarettes. The Vaping: Know the truth curriculum provides peer-to-peer, self-led instruction geared to high school students and is available to teachers of middle and high school grade levels.

Kaiser Permanente funded the development of the free Vaping: Know the truth curriculum making it widely available to schools including teachers, students, administrators, parents and the public at large, as part of its Thriving Schools initiative. For its part, the American Heart Association promoted the availability of the course as part of its Tobacco-Free Toolkit which includes a model school policy and recommendations for school-based prevention curriculum and youth cessation programs. Vaping: Know the truth is made available to schools by leading social impact education innovator, EVERFI.

"Together with our partners, we are honored to be recognized by the Halo Awards for this critical effort to educate our nation's youth on the risks of e-cigarette use," said Robin Koval, Truth Initiative CEO and President. "Giving direct access to the facts about vaping and providing resources to quit designed specifically for young people empowers them to make positive choices when it comes to vaping and their health. This is especially urgent as the youth vaping rate remains at epidemic levels with nearly 1 in 5 high schoolers currently using e-cigarettes."

"Youth vaping has become an epidemic," said David Grossman, MD, MPH, interim senior vice president for community health at Kaiser Permanente. "Parents and teachers need tools to engage and inspire teens to reject vaping and live a tobacco-free lifestyle. We are thrilled to provide this no-cost, cutting edge curriculum with Truth Initiative through our Thriving Schools initiative aimed at supporting schools in becoming a beacon of health in their communities."

"Protecting the health of our youth is paramount to our mission of longer, healthier lives," said Nancy Brown, American Heart Association CEO. "We know that tobacco and vaping products can cause long-term issues in cardiovascular health and providing resources to prevent youth from vaping or help them quit is a critical step in combatting this epidemic."

"Examples of positive corporate social impact were among the meaningful silver linings to be found during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Engage for Good President David Hessekiel. "It's a pleasure to shine a light on outstanding efforts like this that helped society weather such a difficult time."

This marks the 19^th year that Engage for Good has rewarded businesses and nonprofits with Halo Awards for doing well by doing good.

A total of 20 category awards were given out to programs judged the best social impact campaigns of 2020 at the Engage for Good Virtual Conference on May 25-27^th, 2021.

"Many of this year's recipients demonstrated remarkable pivots – both in reaction to the public health crisis of our lifetime as well as a racial reckoning in this country," said Hessekiel. "All of this year's recipients provide inspiration and further proof that companies and causes can collaborate to build a better world and the bottom line."

A full list of this year's Halo Award winners (and a searchable database of past winners) can be found at http://www.engageforgood.com/halo-awards.

About Engage for Good
Engage for Good, producer of the Engage for Good conference and Halo Awards, helps business and nonprofit executives succeed together by providing practical information and inspiration, opportunities to build valuable relationships and recognition for outstanding work engaging employees and consumers around social good and cause-related marketing efforts.

A wealth of information on cause marketing, corporate social impact programs and Engage for Good's offerings can be found at http://www.engageforgood.com

About Truth Initiative ^®Truth Initiative is a national public health organization that is inspiring lives free from smoking, vaping and nicotine and building a culture where all young people reject tobacco. In 2020, we celebrated 20 years of saving lives and preventing millions of youth from smoking. Our impact has helped drive the teen smoking rate down from 23% in 2000 to 4.2% in 2020. The truth about tobacco and the tobacco industry are at the heart of our proven-effective and nationally recognized truth® public education campaign. truth has also recently taken on the youth epidemics of vaping and opioids. Our rigorous scientific research and policy studies, community and youth engagement programs supporting populations at high risk of using tobacco and innovation in tobacco dependence treatment, are also helping to end one of the most critical public health battles of our time. Based in Washington D.C., our organization, formerly known as the American Legacy Foundation, was established and funded through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. To learn more, visit truthinitiative.org.

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 12.5 million members in 8 states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists, and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery, and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education, and the support of community health.

SOURCE Truth Initiative