To support schools and communities in creating asthma-friendly schools, CDC has released Initiating Change: Creating an Asthma-Friendly School, a toolkit developed to help advocates at the district and school levels persuade people in their schools and communities of the importance of asthma-friendly schools. The cornerstone of the toolkit is a 13-minute, inspirational video on Creating an Asthma-Friendly School, which features real-life success stories of students in Charlotte, North Carolina and Detroit, Michigan who, thanks to their schools' asthma-friendly policies and programs, now have their asthma under control. The toolkit also includes materials to help people plan and facilitate a showing of the video in their community or school, as well as science-based suggestions and tools for making their schools more asthma-friendly.

The toolkit and a link to a podcast of the video are now available on the CDC/DASH website at www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/asthma/creatingafs. A link to an on-demand webinar on Marketing Asthma-Friendly Schools is also available at this site. The webinar provides information on how asthma advocates can use the video and toolkit to encourage people to make their schools more asthma-friendly. 

You can order the video (in DVD format), a CD-ROM of all toolkit materials, or a hard copy of the toolkit (which includes the DVD and CD-ROM) by e-mailing cdcinfo@cdc.gov or by calling 800-CDC-INFO (800.232.4636).

During the week of May 26th, the new school asthma toolkit, video and webinar are being featured on CDC's homepage at www.cdc.gov