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The Tobacco Free Sports (TFS) program promotes a tobacco free lifestyle for young athletes by providing educational opportunities and assuring the existence of tobacco free environments during sporting events. The Kansas TFS program is a grant-funded project that began in 1998 as a soccer program and had grown to encompass all sports.

The TFS programs offers competitive mini-grant opportunities to support activities where youth are coached by tobacco free leaders and education is provided about the negative effects of tobacco on health and athletic performance. Any event supported by the program must be tobacco free, including all sponsors (coaches), athletes, and spectators.

The Tobacco Use Prevention Program is available to provide technical assistance to sports leagues or teams working to develop tobacco free policies.

Why focus on recreation as a tobacco prevention tool?

Recreation provides the opportunity to:

• Involve community organizations in tobacco prevention.
• Access the social environments of youth.
• Reach parents.
• Reach the large number of youth involved in recreational activities.
• Connect with youth involved in recreational programs, since they are at risk to use tobacco.
• Raise awareness on secondhand smoke.
• Change community norms.
• Encourage leaders to positively influence young people's behavior.
• Utilize members of recreational organizations since they are important community role models.
• Promote physical fitness.
• Counter the tobacco industry's targeting of sporting events.
• Develop key partnerships that can be utilized for future health initiatives.

Visit the following sites for more information on Tobacco Free Sports.

• Centers for Disease Control
• Maine's Tobacco Free Athletes Program
• Minnesota Tobacco Free Youth Recreation