 Hello, I'm Debbie Turner and I'm pleased to introduce you to Media Smart Youth, an exciting new workshop for young people ages 11 to 13. Media Smart Youth helps young people navigate our complex media world and empowers them to make thoughtful decisions about nutrition and physical activity. As a television broadcaster, I know the power and pervasiveness of media. Media are everywhere and can influence our attitudes, behaviors, and most importantly, our health. To address this, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, or NICHD, created the Media Smart Youth Workshop. NICHD is part of the National Institutes of Health, which conducts most of the federal government's medical research. Media Smart Youth is a unique program. It uses media awareness and media production as an approach to involve young people in thinking about nutrition and physical activity. It helps them become aware of the connection between media and their health. In this engaging workshop, youth will develop the knowledge and skills needed to take greater control over their food and activity choices, to take greater control over their use of media and their responses to it. In short, young people will become Media Smart. The fundamental principle behind Media Smart Youth is to help young people learn by doing. The workshop uses a variety of learning formats and is divided into 10 structured lessons. Each is designed to run about 90 minutes. By using a fun hands-on approach, young people will learn to identify and analyze media messages and be thoughtful about the actions they're being asked to take. Each lesson gives young people a chance to express what they're learning by creating media themselves, staging skits, developing news stories, or writing jingles. Youth will also explore some important nutrition concepts and think about the food choices they make in their daily lives. With a tasty snack break included in each lesson, young people will practice making helpful food choices in real-life settings. The workshop also reinforces the importance of physical activity and its link to good health. Youth will explore this concept through discovering fun ways to be active in daily life. An action break in each lesson gets everyone up and moving. All these activities lead up to the big production, an opportunity for youth to create a media project designed to motivate other young people to take action for better nutrition or increased physical activity. How and what you do for the big production is up to you. You can facilitate it on your own or engage a media partner to help you plan and carry it out. No matter how you conduct it, young people will learn new skills in production, teamwork, creativity, and they'll have fun. Media Smart Youth combines solid youth development principles and practices with current child development research findings and recommendations about nutrition and physical activity. It is consistent with widely accepted national learning standards and has been pilot tested in youth-serving organizations like yours. The Media Smart Youth workshop can be adapted to a variety of settings such as after-school programs, summer camps, or scout meetings. The program is flexible, so you can decide the frequency and scheduling that works best for you and your youth group. Everything you need to conduct the lessons is included in the Media Smart Youth Kit. The facilitator's guide, with an introduction and overview, features the ten easy-to-use lesson plans and a variety of helpful resources. A companion video or DVD includes segments geared to reinforce topics in each lesson. Pre and post workshop activities will provide your staff with an opportunity to discover what youth know and think about media, nutrition, and physical activity issues. And finally, the colorful six media questions poster will bring to life the program's special media analysis tool. I encourage you to take the time now to review the introduction and overview in the facilitator's guide and to preview the next segment of this video. In it, you'll hear from some of the workshop facilitators who have already used Media Smart Youth. You and I share something in common – we're committed to empowering youth and helping them reach their full potential. We can take a big step in that direction with the Media Smart Youth program. The importance of smart choices and good health among our young people can't be overstated. This is an important period in the lives of young people and many of the patterns they develop in these critical years will stay with them for much of their lives. The lessons in this program can help young people understand the influence that media can have on their decisions and at the same time encourage young people to make healthy choices. Take a close look at Media Smart Youth – try it with young people in your community. I think they'll have a lot of fun and learn some skills that will stay with them for many years. Thank you for your interest. I wish you all the best and have fun.