Tobacco-use prevention programs aimed at local youth will shift into high gear this month when officials with the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation select the Northern Virginia community organizations and agencies that will share $1.2 million set asi

Applications are due Tuesday, at which time nine advisory boards from across the state will begin choosing who will get to dip into that pool of money to develop programs. The foundation was created by the General Assembly in 1999 to use various tools -- marketing, advertising, local programs and education, as well as research and enforcement -- to steer young people away from tobacco products. It grew out of the legislature's decision to spend 10 percent of the state's share of the national tobacco settlement to fight youth smoking. At the same time, legislators agreed to allot half the settlement money -- tens of millions of dollars each year -- to help tobacco farmers. Virginia, a major tobacco-producing state whose lawmakers in Richmond work under ceilings decorated with bright gold reliefs of tobacco leaves, expects to receive $4 billion over 25 years from the national settlement. Foundation officials said they have put together a statewide budget that will fund $6 million in anti-tobacco programs annually. Of that amount, Northern Virginia programs will receive $1.2 million each year. The foundation board last month approved members for its nine regional advisory boards, which will consider applications from groups seeking funds and make recommendations to the foundation's board of trustees in January. The first round of programs will be funded for 18 months, officials said. "If they are fulfilling what they set out to do, we'll extend the contracts," said Marge White, acting executive director of the settlement foundation. "If we don't renew the contract, we'll offer funding to other organizations." Groups selected to receive funds will be asked to implement one of 100 tobacco-use prevention programs currently in use nationwide -- programs that were deemed successful by the foundation. The groups will be asked to use a selected program -- for example, social skills development, which is said to help youngsters resist peer pressure to use tobacco products -- as a core teaching technique, then build on it. "It's not just 'say no' skills, but they talk about social environment and social responses," White said. "It works on [the child's] self-esteem, so they feel good about the decision they're making." Underage smoking continues to be an issue on government agendas nationwide. According to the most recent National Youth Tobacco Survey, conducted over two months in 1999, one in every eight middle-school students surveyed reported recently using some form of tobacco. Cigarettes were the preferred product, followed by cigars. At the high school level, more than a third of the students surveyed reported recently using tobacco. An equal percentage of male and female students said they smoked cigarettes, but boys were significantly more likely than girls to use smokeless tobacco products. Although the foundation was formed several years ago, officials said they have not allocated much money yet, only recently hiring an ad agency that will have a $10 million annual budget to develop and launch an anti-smoking campaign over three years. The foundation has also developed a Virginia research consortium that consists of state universities and other institutions of higher learning that will consult on research projects. And the foundation has contracted with health education centers statewide that are collecting data for a Virginia youth tobacco survey.

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