Fort Scott Community College Announces Advanced Quit-Smoking Program for Employees and Students
Fort Scott Community College, in collaboration with Truth Initiative, announced today the EX Program, an innovative quit-smoking program designed for FSCC employees and students, has started.
The EX Program is a comprehensive, digital smoking-cessation program designed for employers, health systems and health plans to offer to their employees or members who smoke.
The program includes the popular quit-smoking planning tools and online community from the proven-effective smoking cessation program.
According to Truth Initiative, statistics make clear why an innovative, advanced approach is needed:
- 68 percent of smokers want to quit.
- 55 percent of smokers make a quit attempt annually, yet only seven percent are successful.
- Each year a smoker costs an employer nearly $6,000 more than an employee who has never smoked.
- “Since 95% of U.S. adults own a cellphone, and nearly 9 in 10 use the Internet, what better way to reach those in need than to offer an online cessation program,” said Phi Theta Kappa Advisor, Susie Arvidson.
“Through the policy adoption and the work required to accomplish it, not only are we creating a healthier environment, but many students have experienced the procedures of policy and education. We are the heart of the institution and being involved in the policy process is important. We are, also, offering educational opportunities including health-related topics and online and face-to-face cessation workshops. We hope that through the opportunities such as the Ex Program, students, faculty, and staff will be offered the tools to better handle the transition of the policy adoption,” said Leslie Damian, Smoke-Free Campus Initiative college leader, and intern.
The Ex Program will be one cessation tool offered as part of the Fort Scott Community College’s Smoke-Free Campus Initiative.
FSCC announced in January that they were one of 18 minority-serving institutions and community colleges to receive funds and technical support from Truth Initiative®, the nation’s largest nonprofit public health organization dedicated to making tobacco use a thing of the past.
The project is being led by Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society on campus. Over the past three years, Truth Initiative has partnered with 135 colleges, reaching more than 1.2 million students and 275,000 faculties and staff across 35 states.
To learn more about our work speaking, seeking and spreading the truth about tobacco, visit truthinitiative.org.