Learning Objectives: list recommendations for linking tobacco control work with the work of organizations and programs that focus on the needs of women and girls
Abstract: Recognizing the impact of tobacco use on and industry targeting of women and girls, tobacco control advocates have reached out to women’s and girls’ organizations to encourage them to join in anti-tobacco efforts. This has not always been as effective as hoped, for various reasons.
In response to this problem, the Women, Girls & Tobacco Advisory Committee, a policy advisory group to the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program, established a work group to develop an Action Guide to working with organizations and programs that advocate for and serve the needs of women and girls. To accomplish this, focus groups were conducted with representatives of a variety of such organizations to assess their attitudes toward the tobacco control agenda, and the barriers and facilitators to collaborative work in this area. The findings are currently being analyzed.
Using the information gathered, as well as analyses of effective and less successful collaborations, an Action Guide summarizing findings and offering recommendations will be developed, reproduced and distributed. The findings, and the Action Guide itself, will be available at the time of the conference.
Participants in the focus groups offered valuable insights from the perspective of programs that work to meet the needs of the very people that the tobacco industry actively targets. Past efforts at collaboration also provide rich information. This Action Guide can assist tobacco control advocates in efforts to collaborate with out natural allies.
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