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Regional Meetings on Best Practices, January 2008

Comprehensive tobacco control programs save lives by preventing kids from ever starting to smoke and helping smokers quit; they are also instrumental in raising public awareness and creating a positive environment for a broad range of social norm changes.  This comprehensive approach is needed now more than ever, as the tobacco companies continue their aggressive efforts to mislead the public and the decline in smoking prevalence appears to have stalled.

Along with our national partners at the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, in January 2008, we hosted a series of regional meetings entitled Mulligan Phase II: Assessing the Impact of CDC Best Practices.

The purpose of the meetings was to bring together tobacco control program staff and advocates from around the country to share information and strategies about how to most effectively use the Centers for Disease Control’s recently updated Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. We believe the meeting will be a catalyst for renewed campaigns in many states to educate the media, the public, and policy makers about the need to fund tobacco control programs at CDC recommended levels. Thanks to the updated Best Practices, we believe we have an exceptional opportunity to increase awareness about the critical role played by these programs.

Below are links to participant contact information, presentations shared at the meetings as well as additional resources.  States who did not participate in the regional meetings will be invited to participate in a web-based conference in the coming months.

Best Practices—2007
Terry F. Pechacek, PhD
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Office on Smoking and Health

Implementing an Effective Sustainability Plan—New York’s Experience
Ursula Bauer, PhD
Director, Tobacco Control Program
New York State Department of Health

How Tobacco Control Programs Can Have Impact with Elected Officials Without Lobbying
Kimberly Weich Reusché
Director, The Center for Tobacco Policy & Organizing
American Lung Association of California

Indiana Tobacco Control 2010 Strategic Plan: Putting Together a Tobacco Free Indiana Piece X Piece
Karla Sneegas, MPH
Director, Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency (ITPC)

Presentation: Communicating Our Message: We Know What Works

Presentation: An Advocate’s Perspective on CDC Best Practices

Luncheon Presentation: Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence 

List of Meeting Participants
Washington, D.C.—January 11, 2008
Chicago, Illinois—January 15, 2008
Atlanta, Georgia—January 17, 2008
Salt Lake City, Utah—January 22, 2008

Related Materials
CDC’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs—2007

Chart: State Tobacco Prevention Spending Recommendation, FY08 State Tobacco Prevention Spending, Total State Tobacco Revenue, Health Care Costs in State, Tobacco Company Marketing in State

Factsheet: Comprehensive Statewide Programs Reduce Tobacco Use

Presentation: Michigan team created their own version of the CDC Best Practices presentation and have used it to educate their state coalition and other target audiences about the new recommendations.