Stick It is an initiative aimed at eliminating secondhand smoke in the home. Since the initiative started with VOICE, Indiana’s youth tobacco-prevention movement, teens across Indiana are talking to their parents and other adults about Stick It. Youth can educate their parents and/or other adult smokers in their lives about the tobacco industry’s history of manipulation and the dangers of secondhand smoke. Then, youth find creative ways to get their parents, et al. to stop smoking in the house, car or any other space they share with non-smoking family members. The end result: youth and their parents Stick It to secondhand smoke. But it doesn’t stop with youth – adults can share Stick It with their peers, too, so that they can Stick It to secondhand smoke.

The full Stick It kit is available here. The kit includes everything you need to participate in Stick It, including: a registration and pledge form. When you take the pledge to Stick It to secondhand smoke, you’ll receive a full description of the activity, as well as key messages about Voice and the Stick It initiative; a calendar and stickers you’ll need for Stick It., fact sheets about secondhand smoke and resources for quitting smoking. From time to time, you’ll also receive information about cool prizes your family can win by participating in Stick It!

To participate in Stick It, you first have to register and pledge to stay involved. Fill out the pledge form inside the Stick It kit or ask your county partner or regional director for a pledge sheet. The pledge is a pact that a family makes to learn about the tobacco’s history of manipulation and the dangers of secondhand smoke -- and to do something about it.

For every day a family’s home remains smokefree, place a sticker on the Stick It calendar. Over time, you’ll have to get creative. You can use all kinds of tactics to get secondhand smoke out of your house (or someone’s house). For example, youth might simulate emphysema and drive their parents crazy with loud coughing; they might cry for days and tell their parents they’re afraid of becoming an orphan, or of being sent to their early death; they may even try the “mature thing” and sit their family members down for a heart-to-heart conversation about the dangers of secondhand smoke. Then there’s always bribery: youth might offer to clean their sibling’s room once a month if parents stick to Stick It. Adults might tack an extra half hour on to curfew for each week youth remain consistent in filling out the Stick It calendar.

Youth and parents, et al. will also want to create some consequences, just in case either side loses momentum:

• Every time someone lights up in the house youth get a “get out of jail free” card that saves you from punishment for some household rule you happen to break down the road
• First violation, Mom and Dad buy Junior that drum set he’s been wanting. Second violation, Junior starts learning how to play!
• On days when youth forget to put a sticker on the Stick It calendar, parents can demand youth cook dinner.

As for rewards—well, those would be the breathable air in your home, the get out of jail free cards, the drum set, tuna fish and potato chip sandwiches youth make for dinner, etc. Whatever your plan—and whatever the consequences and rewards— agree upon them together in advance and be prepared to be flexible and try new tactics along the way. Whatever it takes for youth to get the attention of their parents, et al. and help them Stick It to secondhand smoke by undoing the damage done over time by the tobacco industry’s manipulative practices. Have your fun, but get your point across! And be prepared to tell the world how it’s working!