199932 Latin American youth empowered social marketing and policy advocacy approach to tobacco prevention

Tuesday, November 10, 2009: 5:06 PM

Joy Goens, MSPH, CHES , Health Promotion Department, Mecklenburg County Health Department, Charlotte, NC
Carolina Cruz, CSAPC , Prevention Department, Anuvia Prevention and Recovery Center, Charlotte, NC
Zorana Valdes, MBA, CSAPC, CSAC , Prevention, Anuvia Prevention & Recovery Center, Charlotte, NC
  
The Mecklenburg County Health Department partnered with the Chemical Dependency Center, a community based organization, to create a youth-led initiative dedicated to combating tobacco use in the Hispanic community of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The project included training bi-lingual adult leader, bi-lingual peer education session conducted by teens, training on advocacy, outreach to Hispanic run businesses and restaurants, and Hispanic social marketing creation run at local mall frequented by Hispanic patrons. Hispanic youth recruited from high schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community were the lead creators on all project ideas including incentives and logo for initiative.

Social marketing included social networking pages to get information on tobacco's harm out to their friends in their own cultural language. Youth ran community booths at local Hispanic/latino festivals and had presence at events educating the community about tobacco use in Spanish. Social marketing also including the placement of ads created by youth in Spanish promoting the bi-lingual tobacco use quitline and posted on the side of the local mall map. The ad was placed in Hispanic-run newspapers. The youth were featured on local Hispanic news media (radio and television). Culturally sensitive peer led training was created in Spanish for teen advocates on tobacco 101, media literacy and media advocacy strategies. Adult leader was integrated in all local professional tobacco education opportunities. Policy promotion included outreach to local Hispanic restaurants advocating for smoke free policy and outreach to local Hispanic owned gas stations advocating for no sale of tobacco products to underage youth.

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate knowledge of process in creating a sustainable community collaboration with Hispanic teen groups. Analyzing the design strategy for community based policy initiatives for Hispanic teens. Discussing challenges and opportunities for inclusion of culturally appropriate materials for inclusion in tobacco prevention movement.

Keywords: Tobacco Control, Latino Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As project coordinator under grant funding from the Health and Wellness Trust Fund I worked very closely to aid in the creation and implementation this collaboration. This was a collaborative project and have worked with the community agency for the past 3 years on the initiative.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Media, social networks and other new communication tools & strategies for tobacco control
See more of: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs