Beginning March 2010, Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago will oversee the Communities Putting Prevention to Work – Chicago Tobacco Prevention Project, in collaboration with Chicago Department of Public Health. This project aims to implement citywide policy strategies designed to decrease tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke, with concentrated efforts aimed at high-burden population groups.
The two-year, $11.5 million project will use evidence-based intervention strategies to achieve citywide implementation and to target specific groups at high risk for tobacco use. The project will include a media campaign, policy initiatives and smoking cessation programming to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke.
Community populations targeted to receive additional resources around cessation and policy activities include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, low income blacks, women who are pregnant, military veterans, people with mental health or substance abuse issues, youth, and food service workers.
Communities Putting Prevention to Work – Chicago Tobacco Prevention Project will create sustainable environmental and systems changes with the positive, long-term health effects of:
decreasing smoking prevalence (10% reduction among adults, 25% among youth);
preventing tobacco-related deaths
decreasing exposure to secondhand smoke (40% reduction among adults; 30% among youth)
