Texas Tar Wars

Tar Wars, led in Texas by the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, is AAFP’s nationwide education program to prevent tobacco use among children. Tar Wars provides students with the tools to make positive health decisions and promote personal responsibility for their own well-being.

Physicians volunteer to present educational curriculum to fourth- and fifth-grade students in their community, and the students compete in a poster contest demonstrating their personal tobacco-free message.

Goals of the Tar Wars program are to:

• Educate and motivate students to be tobacco-free,
• Mobilize health care professionals to become proactive in their community’s health education, and
• Encourage community involvement in support of the Tar Wars program.

You can participate in Texas Tar Wars by:

• Volunteering at your local elementary school,
• Presenting AAFP educational material for activities, and
• Submitting a poster (one poster per school) to the Texas Tar Wars Poster Contest.

Contact Juleah Williams at the Texas Academy of Family Physicians by phone at (512) 329-8666 or by email at jwilliams@tafp.org to get involved with Texas Tar Wars.

> Download the poster contest entry form
> Download the poster release form

About the program

The Tar Wars program, operated nationally by the American Academy of Family Physicians, was founded in response to the growing numbers of youth smokers. By educating forth- and fifth-grade students, the Tar Wars program aims to stem the rising number of new smokers. The Tar Wars Program has two components:

• Health care professionals present a one-hour interactive curriculum to fourth- and fifth-grade students.
• Students compete in their school or class poster contest, reinforcing the Tar Wars mission and allowing participating students to share their tobacco-free message. The school winner is submitted to the statewide contest.

The program focuses on the short-term, image-based consequences of tobacco use and how to think critically about tobacco advertising.

Tar Wars also provides health care professionals, school personnel, and community members the opportunity to form coalitions that share the common goal of discouraging tobacco use among children.

For more information on the national Tar Wars program, go to www.tarwars.org.
For free resources to support a healthy tobacco-free community, click here.

Timeline

School presentations: October, November, and December for the fall and January, February, and March each spring.

Deadline to submit posters to the Texas coordinator: April 1