2009 Health Rocks! Two Initiative

About the Program:

Health Rocks!® is a healthy life program based on decision making and appropriate health knowledge with its beginning-level curriculum targeted at youth ages 8 to 12, and intermediate level targeted at youth ages 12 to 14.  The experiential education program is facilitated by teen/adult leadership teams to help youth learn key health messages and skills such as critical thinking, how to manage stress and peer pressure, how to communicate effectively, and how to analyze media messages.  Special emphasis is placed on tobacco use prevention. 

The program also includes components that bring youth and adults together as partners in developing community strategies that prepare young people to make healthy living choices.  Developing life skills, such as communicating with others, dealing with stress, and critical thinking, helps youth develop internal strength to resist risky behaviors.  Health Rocks! is designed and implemented on the belief that prevention programs that incorporate experiential learning, life skill development and decision making will truly reduce tobacco and drug use in our young people.  The Health Rocks! healthy life curricula series allows participants to experience activities that help them learn and adopt many important skills such as:

1. Understanding of healthy messages related to
   tobacco and drug use;
2. How to take control of and make their choices;
3. The ability to make decisions based on accurate
   information; and
4. The importance of building enduring youth/adult partnerships to address healthy living choices.

Curriculum Information:

The goal of the educational lessons provided in the curriculum is to bring youth, families, and communities together to reduce tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use by youth.

The curriculum addresses key areas that are linked to deterring teen drug use: peer pressure, stress, choices and decisions, refusal skills, and media influences. The curriculum contains eight (8) topical chapters on:

1. Keeping healthy;
2. Self-awareness and stress;
3. Making informed decisions;
4. Peer pressure;
5. Building refusal skills;
6. Media and technology messages;
7. Serving the community;
8. Communicating healthy messages.

The curriculum makes use of experiential (hands-on) learning and is developmentally appropriate for preteens and early adolescents. Use of the curriculum is maximized when it is team taught through youth-adult partnerships. For example, a youth-adult partnership involves having adult youth program staff and volunteers team up with youth in the community (such as 4-H) to teach Health Rocks! Two to preteen and young teen audiences across

As part of the 2009 State Implementation Grant, the curriculum used will be the Health Rocks! 4-H Healthy Life Series Intermediate Level (click on image below for ordering information).

 

 

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