Tobacco Free Adagio Health will hold second annual TRU Youth Leadership Conference

Tobacco Free Adagio Health will hold second annual TRU Youth Leadership Conference

Youth from 11 PA counties will gather in Irwin to discuss tobacco- and nicotine-related issues

Pittsburgh, PA (March 13, 2023) – Tobacco Free Adagio Health (TFAH) in partnership with TRU, short for Tobacco Resistance Unit, will hold the second annual TRU Youth Leadership Conference on March 17 at Antonelli’s Event Center in Irwin, PA. TRU student members from Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland counties will gather to discuss mental health and advocate for nicotine- and tobacco-related issues at the conference. Since 2020, Tobacco Free Adagio Health has nearly tripled the number of students enrolled in the TRU program in southwestern PA – going from 550 to now 1,400 TRU student members across 27 TRU groups in southwestern PA and Allegheny County.

Keynote speaker Jordan Corcoran, CEO and Founder of the mental health non-profit Listen Lucy, will open the conference, and students will also hear from motivational speaker Josh Horner and health advocate Mohammad Shedeed. Five state legislators will also be in attendance to discuss policy change and judge PSA videos made by the TRU students on emerging issues, like flavored vaping devices or the importance of clean indoor air.

Twenty different schools will be represented at the conference, with over 280 students currently registered to attend.

“TRU provides the opportunity for youth to train and hone their leadership skills and serve as advocates to reduce the use of nicotine and tobacco use among their peers,” said Casey Monroe, Vice President of Disease Prevention Programs at Adagio Health. “Our TRU youth are some of the brightest, most creative, and motivated students you will encounter. They take their responsibility to make their schools and communities safer and healthier places very seriously.”

TRU is a statewide program overseen by the Pennsylvania Alliance to Control Tobacco (PACT) and the American Lung Association.  Adagio Health manages the program in Allegheny County and 10 additional southwestern PA counties. The program supports the efforts of youth ages 12 to 18 to stay tobacco and nicotine free through education and teaching students how to live a healthy lifestyle.

“In the short time that we’ve had TRU, we see a lot more intelligent conversations happening peer-to-peer,” said Brian Randall, an educator at Portage High School. “And I’ve seen a lot of growth as far as student understandings of the dangers of vaping.”

“TRU has helped develop me into a leader because I have been given the education and resources to grow as a drug-free, alcohol-free student,” said Madelyn, a TRU student from Portage High School.

For more information about TRU or Tobacco Free Adagio Health, visit Tobacco Free Adagio Health or call 800-215-7494.

What is TRU? Watch the video here.