AWARE has developed training guides and other resources for service providers who work with substance involved women in higher risk groups. Our resources for service providers are well-researched and thoroughly evaluated. Many women are involved in our work. The AWARE collective and special provincial and national advisory committees oversee and advise all of AWARE's projects
Please note: At AWARE, we strive to make our resources as widely available as possible. However, we depend on the sale of our resources as a small but viable portion of our revenue. Our prices reflect cost retrieval only. We are a very small organization and your support enables us to continue our work. We appreciate your honesty in respecting our Terms of Use policy.
STARSS (Start Thinking About Reducing Secondhand Smoke)
STARSS was developed specifically for the needs of CAPC (Community Action Programs for Children) projects, although the program has been implemented in many settings and services (such as Public Health Units and addiction treatment programs) where there are pregnant and parenting women smokers. This is NOT a quit smoking program (there are lots of those out there!), although it contains strategies to support moms who make this choice. STARSS is a supportive, sensitive strategy for low-income mothers who smoke and are interested in learning ways to protect their children from the effects of secondhand smoke. The program’s goal is to enable moms to protect their children as much as possible from secondhand smoke in the home without a focus on smoking cessation.
During the development of STARSS, we learned the importance of the small steps approach to supporting women, especially low-income mothers, in their attempts to protect their children from the effects of secondhand smoke. More importantly, we rediscovered that the harm reduction approach encourages both quit attempts and cessation by providing a less threatening message regarding smoking. Service providers also are very comfortable delivering STARSS, as it provides them with a step-by-step approach they can tailor to the needs of their work sites; STARSS was found to increase the self-efficacy of both women participants and service providers. STARSS resources include:
- The Guide to STARSS Strategies – for service providers. The cost to purchase is $15 per copy.
- I’m a STAR! Journal – for moms. The cost to purchase is $3 per copy.
- STARSS posters – for display in drop-in, community centres, and other work sites that are offering STARSS strategies to their participants. The cost to purchase is $10 for a set of 3 posters.
- Final Report of the National Rollout of STARSS. This may be of interest to those who would like to understand the process involved in, and the evaluation of, the National Rollout of STARSS that occurred within CAPC sites across Canada in 2006/07. This is available as a PDF download. Spiral bound hard copies may also be purchased for $5 per copy. (Executive Summary available in French.)
We also have a monthly STARSS newsletter. Click here to view it. The STARSS resources are also available in French as BRAVO.
The SMART Guide
A co-production of Mothercraft/Breaking the Cycle and AWARE, this training guide provides solid, how-to information about motivational counselling strategies, stages of change approaches, and other current specialized skills in addictions as they apply to pregnant and parenting women who struggle with alcohol use. Issues for both service providers and pregnant/parenting women are identified at each stage of change. The SMART Guide is also available in French as Guide SMART. Translation of The SMART Guide into French was made possible with the support of the Prevention Working Group of the Ontario FASD Stakeholders Network. The cost to order is $20 per copy for one to ten copies and $15 per copy for over ten copies.
