Teen SmokeStoppers Program


(203) 576-5451

St. Vincent's Teen SmokeStoppers Program, underwritten by St. Vincent's SWIM Across the Sound, provides free interactive teen smoking prevention and cessation classes in schools throughout the state.

Teen SmokeStoppers Stats

  • 120,000+ teens reached
  • 110+ schools visited
  • 5,700+ teens quit smoking

Prevention Classes are age-appropriate presentations demonstrating the dangers of smoking, through such techniques as viewing and comparing a healthy preserved human lung to one diseased from smoking.

The Cessation Classes consist of eight sessions divided into three stages:

Quitters' Countdown
Prepares teen smokers psychologically and physically for the quitting experience

Learning to Stop
Offers the techniques, guidance and structure necessary for cessation during the critical first days of nicotine withdrawal

Staying Smoke Free
Creates a system that addresses transitional needs and eases the way to permanent cessation

  • Average age a Connecticut child starts smoking: 11.7
  • 6,000 Connecticut children take up smoking each year
  • 90% of smokers begin before age 18
  • 90% of all lung cancer results from smoking

"Teen SmokeStoppers is a wonderful program that is providing impressive results - not only enhancing health and educating young people. I applaud your efforts."
- Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut State Attorney General

For more information, contact St. Vincent's Medical Center Foundation at (203) 576-5451.

Teen Smoke Stoppers Educators