What Is it All About?
Work collaboratively to create a visual message board in a common area of the school to have your voice heard. Your message board can include infographics, words, poems, photos or art that make people more aware of cannabis and its effects.
Why Do It?
This is your creative space to get your message out. Visual images peak people’s curiosity and compels them to take a closer look to see what the image is all about.
How Do We Do It?
Work with your adult ally to gain permission to use a bulletin board in a highly visible area in your school. If your school doesn’t have one in your desired area, ask permission to create a message board in the area, using a wall and tape to create the frame for the message board.
Choose topics and messages related to cannabis that you want to promote. It’s important that your messages appeal to a broad audience and do not convey judgement over other’s choices. Consider facts and images with a focus on topics connected to substance use such as resilience, mental health, alternative activities to support well-being, and the importance of relationships and connection with others.
Use the collected images and messages to create your message board.
Leave space on your bulletin board for students to add pictures, images, or messages of their own. (Decide whether the messages can be anonymously posted or if they should be submitted through your organizing group).
Each day, check to make sure that nothing inappropriate has been added. If this happens, simply remove elements as needed (work with your adult ally if you’re unsure).
Once the bulletin board is full, take a picture and share it!
Ideas for Use in a Variety of Settings
Use a shared document for your team to choose topics and messages related to cannabis that you want to promote, and identify all school social media platforms available to you to share your messages.
Use a virtual meeting platform and available technology to work with your team to create your message board virtually. Consider creating a variety of boards with different visual themes and messages related to cannabis to share over a predetermined time period.
Use your school media platforms to share your message board(s).
Use available technology to reach out to other volunteers and community members to be part of your event asking them to submit their own images and/or messages to be used for your team to create a community message board.
What Else Do We Need?
- Glue
- Magazines and/or newspapers
- Access to the Internet
- Paper
- Scissors
- Writing utensils
- $10–20 if needed to purchase materials or copy images and articles.
How Do We Get Creative?
Add the photos of the message board to your school’s social media sites for more people to see.
Consider having a theme of the month such as consumption, driving high, and/or vaping.
Create a class health board challenge with each class contributing their own knowledge, photos, and messages to the monthly message board or have the class create their own individual boards.
Send a picture of the message boards to local media to engage your community in learning about cannabis.
Organize your message boards as part of a larger healthy school event or as part of a nationally recognized day such as Weedless Wednesday or World Health Day.
Adapted From: Ophea-Happy Mood Board