Truth Initiative

Youth and young adult public education:truth Initiative's public health education campaign Truth has been a leading driver in reducing youth and young adult tobacco use for two decades. Campaign impact has been proven in multiple published studies. Published research has also established the cost effectiveness of the program. The current focus of the campaign since 2018 is the nation's youth vaping epidemic and the harms of nicotine addiction for young people. Recent research shows that awareness of the Truth campaign is related to preventing youth vaping initiation, slowing progression and promoting young people who do vape to quit. In 2018, we expanded Truth's messaging to take on the national opioid abuse epidemic. Our messaging focuses on youth and young adult prevention, primarily through in-school education.

Community and youth engagement:community and youth engagement (caye) recruits, educates, and mobilizes young people, particularly bipoc and lgbtq communities, to take action on smoking, vaping, and nicotine on behalf of Truth's policy priorities. Caye engages high school and college student leaders to educate decision-makers at the community, state, and national level about the impact vaping has on young people. We do this through digital and on-the-ground activism and leadership training programs. Caye works with colleges, universities and students to institute tobacco-free campus policies. Caye works with other non-profit organizations, particularly those serving populations disproportionately impacted by tobacco, to engage their young people on issues related to tobacco. In addition, we work with schools to educate students with Truth Initiative's high school curriculum, vaping: know the Truth.

Research policy and practice:truth Initiative is a leader in tobacco control research and policy with a strong team of research scientists in our schroeder institute for tobacco research and policy studies and a dedicated team of policy professionals who participate in the ongoing discussion around the best approaches for reducing tobacco related death and disease. Schroeder institute scientists produce peer-reviewed papers on issues related to tobacco control, speak at national and local conferences, and along with our policy team create a suite of resources and guidance on issues from e-cigarettes to tobacco industry marketing tactics for use by tobacco control professionals at both the local and national level. Our policy team regularly weighs in on federal regulatory approaches to tobacco control via formal comments and letters to fda and other federal agencies.

Tobacco cessation innovations:truth Initiative's innovations center is a cross-functional team of leading scientists, product development experts, and sales and marketing professionals that builds and deploys scalable and sustainable digital solutions for tobacco cessation. In partnership with mayo clinic, we run a freely available digital cessation program - becomeanex - that has been used by nearly a million tobacco users. Our enterprise product - ex program - expands our reach through strategic partnerships with health plans, health systems, and employers. In 2019, we launched this is quitting, a first of its kind text message vaping cessation program specifically designed for teens and young adults that is now in use by nearly 500,000 young people. Strategic partnerships with states, school systems, and health plans help further our efforts to engage young people with this is quitting. The innovations center is internationally recognized for its rigorous research in digital approaches to tobacco cessation and its field-leading contributions to the academic literature and real-world deployment of digital cessation tools.