On July 26th, the Alexandria Health Department hosted a community health meeting at the Durant Center where c ommunity members came together to discuss improving the overall health of Alexandria. This event encouraged public involvement in reporting and understanding community health needs.  Health department staff shared information about an exciting strategy called PhotoVoice to engage Alexandria residents and visitors in data collection for the community health assessment. Individuals were asked to submit pictures of what they love about Alexandria and what they think could use some work. Pictures shared with the Health Department, as well as accompanying captions, were shared on the Instagram account AlexHealthMatters, and will be presented at a community meeting held on Saturday, November 3rd, from 9:30 am - 11:30 am. Breakfast will be served at 9:00 am and the location will be announced soon!

To celebrate a successful summer of KAT camp, campers, parents, and camp leaders came together to eat delicious food and have fun on July 31st. KAT Camp is a summer program that takes place at ten local community recreation centers. Teen leaders provide educational sessions on alcohol and tobacco prevention, negative peer pressure reversal, anger management and nutrition promotion to eight-12 year olds. The picnic featured a moon bounce, popcorn machine, and snow cone maker, along with pizza and Chick-fil-A sandwiches. Campers got to run around, have fun with family and friends, and celebrate a summer well spent. A big thanks goes to the City of Alexandria's Youth Development Team for putting this event together!

JUUL is a brand of e-cigarette commonly used by young people. It has become so popular that the brand name has become a popular synonym for vaping: 'JUULing'. This brand markets itself with flavors such as bubble gum and cotton candy, whi ch appeal to youth. Each refill or 'pod' contains as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. JUUL claims the e-cigarettes are marketed only for use by individuals trying to quit smoking. Despite this claim, 16% of high school seniors reported using e-cigarettes.

Recently JUUL's name has made headlines. Parents and users have sued JUUL for misleading advertising, finding the JUUL pods contained more nicotine than they claimed. Many have also sued JUUL in the wake of some young people becoming addicted to JUULs. The attorney general of Massachusetts has opened an investigation into JUUL's advertising techniques, which seem to be purposely aimed at kids. It is important that parents and youth educate themselves on the real dangers of e-cigarettes and understand that they are not harmless.

Mark your calendar for October 20, 2018! During Project Sticker Shock, 

teams of youth and adults visit stores in Alexandria to place "warning" stickers on multi-packs of beer, wine coolers and other alcoholic products, highlighting the penalties for furnishing alcohol to minors.