Show Me: COMPETENT PROGRAMS

These following abstracts of culturally competent programs have been selected from among many more that are supported by the Legacy Foundation.

New Mexico: Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board, Tribal Tobacco Awareness (AAIHB)
Tribal communities use tobacco in religious ceremonies and as a commercial product. Through its one-year grassroots Tribal Tobacco Awareness Project, the AAIHB will educate people about the health hazards associated with tobacco use and its cultural significance while devising strategies to reduce its commercial use. Community forums will be held and will lead to the formation of community-based tribal tobacco councils that with develop plans to address tobacco use consistent with community values. The cultural use of tobacco within these communities will be documented as well.

New York: Alianza Dominicana, Inc., Anti-Tobacco Community Mobilization Project
Alianza Dominicana wants to expand its youth-sponsored Teens Against Tobacco Use project by developing a Community Organizing Project to reduce tobacco use in northern Manhattan, especially among Latinos. The project will conduct youth and adult outreach and anti-tobacco leadership training, create Youth Action Groups, link with tobacco cessation clinics and hold an intergenerational tobacco awareness conference and a pilot community counter-media campaign. The Mobilization Project will train community youth and adults to counsel their peers to prevent tobacco use.

Georgia: Family Connection of Macon and Bibb County/The River Edge
The Macon-based Family Connection Grandparents program provides home visits, mentoring and other support for economically disadvantaged families. Foster grandparents can help families address troubling issues and provide smoking cessation support. The River Edge mental health center has three substance abuse programs that target special populations, each of which needs support programs to help clients quit smoking. A countywide health fair that describes tobacco health risks and cessation options is also proposed.

Massachusetts: Allston-Brighton Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Project
This Boston-based coalition used trained community outreach staff to help underserved low socioeconomic status residents reduce or quit tobacco use. Targeted populations include ethnic groups who have language, literacy and cultural challenges, and substance abuse and mentally ill community residents. Outreach staff receives training to become certified tobacco treatment specialists. A community-developed peer education program was developed to broaden awareness of youth-tailored smoking prevention and cessation services.

Massachusetts: Home for Little Wanderers, Tobacco Education for Gay and Lesbian Youth (TEGLY)
TEGLY was designed to teach gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) youth in Massachusetts who are under the age of 24 about the dangers of tobacco use and encourage the adoption of healthy alternatives. The TEGLY program, the only tobacco cessation program that focuses on GLBT youth, teaches peer support, coping and self-esteem-building skills along with access to smoke-free environments. TEGLY holds interactive workshops for GLBT youth that explore tobacco use and the conditions and influences that promote it, and teaches about the health risks of tobacco use.

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