Creating 100% Tobacco- and E-Cigarette-Free Schools: Utilizing digital strategies to pass a statewide tobacco-free schools bill

Background:

The “24/7” campaign is an initiative in Virginia to help school districts understand, adopt, implement, and enforce comprehensive tobacco- and e-cigarette-free policies. Although every state has a tobacco-free school policy requirement, many policies are not up-to-date or have loopholes – such as not covering e-cigarettes, off-site events, visitors, or non-school hours. Comprehensive policies support a school environment that is 100% free from all tobacco products 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thanks in part to the 24/7 online and offline campaign, a statewide, comprehensive tobacco-free schools policy was adopted by the Virginia legislature during the 2019 legislative session

Program background:

It is essential in today’s political climate to weave digital strategies into the fabric of any policy effort to gain the groundswell of support required to create change. 24/7 utilizes several digital strategies including:

Advocacy landing page for statewide legislation: This interactive webpage allowed users to voice their own message of support for tobacco-free schools to be displayed on the 24/7 webpage.

Statewide day-of-action digital strategies: Tobacco-Free Spirit Day, a statewide day of appreciation for schools and divisions with 100% comprehensive tobacco- and e-cigarette-free schools, was leveraged this year to demonstrate overwhelming support for these policies. Organic and paid content was utilized as well as ads promoting the message beyond the platform’s followers.

Digital ads: Digital ads ran in both the fall and the spring to educate users as well as drive momentum to the advocacy landing page.

Downloadable website resources: These evergreen materials are downloadable and in most cases, customizable to increase usability.

Interactive social media: Responding to questions and comments is essential to engaging online constituents in a policy initiative.

These, along with in-person, grassroots efforts, created the momentum necessary for successful policy change at both the state and local level.

Evaluation Methods and Results:

Advocacy landing page for statewide legislation:

• 8,398 sessions
• 306 supporters
• 205 messages collected

Digital ads (fall metrics only):

• Awareness (Impressions) - 1,363,811
• Exploratory Engagement (Video/Gif Completions, Clicks, Reactions, Photo Views, Web Sessions) - 94,275
• Active Engagement (Shares, Comments, New Page Likes, Support Submissions) - 1,468

On-the-ground success includes:

• 17 school districts individually adopting comprehensive policies
• 104 school board meetings to discuss policy loopholes & ask districts to adopt better policies
• 253 school-based events ito communicate the school’s tobacco-free policy
• 119 principal meetings including follow-up meetings to discuss assessment data and provide recommendations for improvement
• 593 schools receiving tobacco-free signage
• 32,464 school assessments collected assessing school-level implementation
• 39 news stories spotlighting the work districts are doing to update their policies

Conclusions:

A progressive approach to policy change must including robust strategy for both the on-the-ground and digital landscapes.

Implications for research and/or practice:

Using 24/7 as a case study, this session will show attendees how to set a gold standard for their policy ask, including utilizing digital strategies to successfully pass legislation.