NP
Strategies for effective implementation of the CDC’s “Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program – August, 1999” in tobacco control have been published, but relatively little is known about how communities can most effectively coordinate, implement, and sustain cost-effective tobacco control activities. Marion County Health Department is the lead agency for a collaborative approach to reducing youth tobacco use and youth access to tobacco in the Indianapolis inner-city. Aims of this approach have been to engage the school system, neighborhood-based organizations, law enforcement agencies, the Indiana University Department of Public Health, and a major education center in a commitment to tobacco control; to lever investments of participants to achieve mutual goals; and, to sustain effective components of the intervention. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation along with Indianapolis hospitals, community foundations, and many program partners have invested resources to support a multi-component tobacco control intervention within the 16 middle schools of the Indianapolis Public School Corporation and the neighborhoods served by these schools. Intervention activities include teaching LifeSkills Training, providing mini-grants and consultation to neighborhood-based organizations, conducting retail compliance checks, coordinating a health education center field trip for the middle school students, and establishing an overnight leadership camp for youth teams. Over 7,000 youth have been involved in this intervention during the three year study period. Authors will present the relative effects of various intervention components as measured by both school-based student survey and public opinion survey data and a description of the collaborative relationships, contributions of partners, and indicators of sustainability.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1. State three approaches to assuring strong partnerships. 2. Describe four components of a comprehensive tobacco control program. 3. Discuss strategies for collaborating with neighborhood-based organizations.
Keywords: Collaboration, Tobacco
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: LifeSkills Training substance abuse curriculum by Gilbert Botvin
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.