Looking Beyond the Empirical Data: A Discussion About Out-of-School Youth-Centered Tobacco Prevention Programs

4-H Extension launched an out-of-school smoking cessation initiative aimed at high-risk youth in Michigan. Adults and youth were given educational tools and resources to help prevent smoking in their communities, and youth were offered "hands on" programs to make better decisions about their use of tobacco products. While there were no significant differences in youth knowledge from start to end of select pilot programs, programs reached a large number of people at a relatively low cost and were well received within communities. Of particular importance were the "lessons learned" and subsequent discussions about best practices for future programming.