Creating the Smokeless Sabbath: A faith based anti-tobacco campaign in a low income African American community


Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

4077.0: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - Board 1

Abstract #118151

Rita J. Lourie, MSN, MPH, RN¹, Marilyn Wood, MA², and Robin Dunn². (1) Department of Nursing, Temple University, 3307 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19140, 215-707-4872, rlourie@temple.edu, (2) Center for Intergenerational Learning, Temple University, 206 University Service Building, 1601 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19122

Temple University's North Philadelphia Anti-Tobacco Awareness Program (a joint project of the Department of Nursing and its Neighborhood Nursing Center and the Center for Intergenerational Learning's Full Circle Theater) is based in a low income African American neighborhood surrounding the university. Community assessments completed by high school and college student teams identified disturbing patterns of advertising and illegal sales of tobacco in this community. In order to counter the messages sent by the tobacco companies, the North Philadelphia Anti-Tobacco Awareness Campaign created a community- based multi-focal campaign over three years based on Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action, with its distinguishing construct which states that individuals' intent to perform a given behavior is dependent partly on the opinions of relevant others.

To reach parents and adults, the project enlisted the historic influence of church leaders in the black community to create the Smokeless Sabbath. Eight local pastors participated. The Anti-Tobacco Awareness Program provided resource materials to assist them in taking a stand about tobacco in the community including: 1) talking points and potential references for sermons linking tobacco, health and faith; 2) outreach programs and dramatic presentations; and 3) a cessation program designed for African Americans which provided peer counseling and prayer partnership. In addition, the Smokeless Sabbath brought the pastors together in a broader coalition to help fight illegal cigarette sales, end manipulative advertising in the community and support city-wide smoke-free workplace legislation.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

1)Analyze the planning process of the Smokeless Sabbath
2)Evaluate the outcomes of the project
3)Retrospectively,identify the problems and in turn,prevent them in their own communities

Keywords: Tobacco, Faith Community

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Cultural Competence: Understanding Smoking in Special Populations Poster Session

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA