The Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) Prevention Programs, in partnership with the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency and Sutter Health Memorial Medical Center, will host the 19^th Annual PHAST Tobacco Slam Training on October 1, 2024, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Martin G. Petersen Event Center (720 12^th Street, Modesto.) 
This year’s theme is PHAST Track to a Better Future: Invest in Your Best Path. The focus will be on helping students explore positive life choices, emphasizing the importance of health and good friendships. PHAST clubs encourage these values, and this event will provide tools to help students guide their peers toward a healthy future.
According to SCOE’s Tobacco Use Prevention Education Coordinator Charmaine Monte, “Dahlia Lozano, our keynote speaker, will inspire students by showing them that they are the heroes of their own life stories,” said Monte “Her talk encourages students to make healthy choices, avoid peer pressure, and resist the temptation to vape.”

More than 200 students and advisors from 24 high schools across Stanislaus County will attend workshops covering the following topics:

• The history and progress of anti-tobacco movements
• Crafting a message about PHAST
• Improving public health through community activism and art
• Helping friends quit vaping
• Strategies for managing stress and anxiety
• Creating powerful anti-tobacco Public Service Announcements (PSAs)
• Mental health strategies to overcome peer pressure

Participating high schools include Adelante, Central Valley, Ceres, Davis, Del Puerto, Denair, Denair Charter Academy, Elliott, Enochs, Gregori, Hughson, Johansen, Modesto, Open Valley, Orestimba, PACE, Patterson, Pitman, Riverbank, Roselawn, Sentinel, Turlock, Waterford, and West Side Valley.
Collaborative partners for the event include the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency, Sutter Health Memorial Medical Center, California Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN), Prevention Plus, California Health Collaborative – Compromiso Adelante, American Cancer Society – Cancer Action Network, Equality California – Out Against Big Tobacco, Creation4Cessation Non-Profit Organization, and the California Youth Decoy Program.