FMIG Community Opportunities

Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) members can choose to participate in these programs by contacting an elementary school and scheduling a presentation and/or finding other community groups such as a Boys and Girls Club, YMCA, or after-school program to present to.

Sandy Hook Promise

The mission of Sandy Hook Promise is to prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide, and accidental discharge so that no other patent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child.

The following programs are simple to implement in your community:
  • Start with Hello encourages a culture of inclusion and connectedness
  • Say Something trains children and teens to recognize signs, especially in social media, of someone who may be a threat to them self or others and to say something to a trusted adult.

Research has proven that Sandy Hook Promise’s Know the Signs programs effectively teach youth and adults how to prevent school violence, shootings, and other harmful acts. Students and educators learn how to identify at-risk behaviors and intervene to get help. These early-prevention measures empower everyone to help keep schools and communities safe.

Each program consists 30 to 40 minutes of student training that can be delivered in-person or online. The  programs also align with Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) competencies for Social-Emotional Learning including relationship skills, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and self-awareness.

For free materials and more information, visit the Sandy Hook Promise website.

Tar Wars

Sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Tar Wars is a tobacco-free education program for fourth- and fifth-grade students and is a great community service opportunity for your FMIG. The program is designed to teach children about the short-term health effects and image-based consequences of tobacco use, and about being tobacco free by providing them tools to make positive decisions regarding their health and promote personal responsibility for their well-being.

Program Goals and Outcomes
  • Increase knowledge of short-term health effects and image-based consequences of tobacco use
  • Illustrate cost/financial impact of using tobacco and ways money could be better spent
  • Identify reasons why people use tobacco
  • Explain how tobacco advertising, tobacco use in movies, and the tobacco industry markets their products to youth.

Tar Wars has shown to be effective in increasing students’ knowledge of and attitudes toward tobacco use and advertising and should be considered as one of the building blocks in a school’s comprehensive, tobacco prevention education plan.

All presentation materials, power points, handouts, etc. are available on the Tar Wars website.

Questions?

Please contact Coordinator of Events and Foundation Programs Caitlin Laudeman with any questions about the above opportunities.