A Comprehensive and Coordinated Statewide Approach

For statewide programs, it can be a challenge to make sure outreach activities and messaging efforts effectively resonate with the various people and cultures of Louisiana.  The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) coordinates tobacco prevention initiatives and coalitions across the state with a goal of increasing the capability of local organizations to promote tobacco prevention activities and messaging within their own communities. The foundation of TFL’s increased community capacity and mobilization is its community re-granting process.

When re-granting funds, TFL strives to reach urban, rural and disparately affected communities and to build partnerships throughout the state. Though the organizations funded by TFL vary widely – youth and HIV/AIDS services organizations, musicians’ clinics and faith-based organizations, to name a few – they all share one thing in common: they are trusted by community members and are poised as powerful messengers. Additionally, the organizations that are funded understand the toll that poor health outcomes place on their communities, and, as a result, they offer valuable insight to outreach and messaging strategies that effectively resonate within the communities TFL serves.

Each of TFL’s Community Program Grantees (CPGs) is tasked with coordinating activities that include CDC’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. Grantees are monitored and managed by nine TFL Regional Coordinators (RCs) who live and work within each of Louisiana’s public health regions. RCs and CPGs are also active within Regional Tobacco and Cancer Coalitions which are jointly coordinated by TFL, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals’ Tobacco Control Program, American Cancer Society and Louisiana Comprehensive Cancer Control Program.

To help ensure Louisiana communities are equipped with necessary knowledge, skills and resources to effectively carry out local tobacco prevention and control activities, TFL provides capacity building and technical assistance to all grantees, contractors, community organizations and partners. A majority of TFL’s capacity building assistance is provided to community members by the RCs. LPHI’s Center for Community Capacity organizes trainings throughout the fiscal year in order to provide capacity building assistance mechanisms for grantees, the most important of which are skills building and technical consultation.

A recent skills building training found particularly useful by grantees and partners focused on strategies to organize and mobilize community members toward a specific goal. The training resonated among grantees and partners because it offered knowledge and techniques that could translate to all of their work efforts, not just tobacco prevention and control. An additional training that recently received accolades from participants was an Introduction to Media & Communications, which focused on using strategic messages to speak with a unified voice to members of the media, key stakeholders and community members.

A statewide, comprehensive and coordinated approach to any program or initiative, quite simply, requires significant strategic planning and dedication. TFL’s Community Program Grant program represents a primary strategy to engage non-traditional partners in a statewide campaign designed to reduce youth tobacco use, bring attention to the tobacco industry’s deceptive tactics and raise awareness of the health effects of secondhand smoke exposure. Coordinated activities at the local level are vital to TFL’s success, and LPHI is committed to developing the capacity of partners across the state by providing training, technical assistance, capacity building and expert resources.