Goal / Mission

The LAAMPP Institute draws on a theory of change approach to integrate elements of health equity for tobacco control. It hoped to develop leadership by moving the community and systems towards positive social change and moving priority populations to create new social norms from this change. This cross-cultural leadership training program developed effective and efficacious training for community advocates and emerging leaders to become involved in implementing and sustaining social norm change on tobacco in Minnesota. The Institute objectives focused on building capacity of the coaches to support the fellows and increasing community capacity to mobilize on tobacco control issues, increase advocacy efforts, institutionalize priority population issues in mainstream health care systems, and create new social norms through successful policy changes.

Description:

The Leadership and Advocacy Institute to Advance Minnesota’s Parity for Priority Populations (LAAMPP) Institute is a year-long, innovative cross-cultural leadership program adapted from the APPEAL Leadership Model and designed to build capacity of Minnesota’s priority populations to effectively respond to tobacco control and health justice issues. It does so by training and mobilizing leaders from priority populations throughout Minnesota to implement tobacco control interventions and policies. Because priority populations have been historically underrepresented within the mainstream tobacco movement and disproportionately impacted by the tobacco industry, the program was designed to help advance voices and actions to develop leaders from within these populations. Funding for LAAMPP was provided by ClearWay Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Health in later cohorts.

Studies and practice (especially promising practices) have shown that leadership development can provide a solid foundation for training leaders. Leadership development provides a catalyst for mobilizing key advocates and priority population communities towards sustained social norms and/or policy changes. With this knowledge and application of the APPEAL leadership model, the LAAMPP Institute was designed as an interactive, experiential based learning model that uses the comprehensive community initiative approach, the social ecological, and empowerment models of change to focus on its core competencies for health equity leadership development. LAAMPP focused on the core competencies of advocacy, collaboration, cultural or community competency, facilitation, and expansion of tobacco control and prevention capacities.

Implementation Process

The LAAMPP Institute consisted of three cohorts from 2006 to 2015 and trained over 100 fellows from five priority populations: African/African American, American Indian, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Chicano/Latino, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) communities in Minnesota. Components of the LAAMPP Institutes included the following:

1. a strategic planning process,
2. a tobacco disparities conference,
3. two intensive 4-day leadership summits,
4. four bimonthly theme based trainings on policy, advocacy, fund development, media and tailored topics, and
5. a series of institute activities and meetings

Each priority population group was funded to implement a culturally tailored tobacco control project in their own community. Critical elements of the LAAMPP Institute included a flexible and collaborative planning team, a skilled and community competent training team, and a strong principle-based model. The fellowship provided training in capacity building, leadership development, and advocacy to support community leaders committed to making a positive impact in their communities. By increasing a fellow’s capacity for action through advocacy, LAAMPP increased the fellows’ and their communities’ involvement in implementing social norm change activities.

The success of the first LAAMPP Institute resulted in the reproduction of the leadership trainings for an additional two more times/iterations.

The third and most recent cycle, known as LAAMPP III, consisted of 20-25 days of intensive training for community leaders to further develop their community’s capacity to respond to tobacco over the course of 18 months. The LAAMPP III Institute ran from September 2012 to March 2014 and worked to create a continuing, lasting legacy of positive social change in Minnesota communities.

Impact / Results / Accomplishments/ Outcomes

The LAAMPP Institute has developed present and future tobacco leaders. Its legacy of social change in Minnesota communities paved the way for systems or policy change activities including the following: organizing a letter-writing campaign to the media to support Minnesota’s Freedom to Breathe Act, legislative visits at the local, state, and federal levels, working on clean indoor air policies and voluntary smoke-free apartment units, developing tribal policies on commercial tobacco, and advocating for the inclusion of questions on sexual orientation on health-related surveys.

LAAMPP initially focused on individual knowledge and skills development; however, it created a long term impact through social norm and policy change on multiple levels including within priority population communities, in mainstream institutions, and on legislative levels. The LAAMPP Institute effectively increased the skills of leaders and advocates for tobacco control and had a lasting impact on other sectors of health and health equity. It demonstrated that effective policy change requires the inclusion of input from priority populations from the beginning of policy planning. LAAMPP showed how leadership programs for priority populations are a viable training mechanism for implementation and sustained social norm change in tobacco control. LAAMPP reiterated the importance of inclusion of priority populations during all phases of health equity work, the creation of an assets-based model steeped in a social justice context/framework, the development of a safe, learning community, and application of the lessons learned for engagement and implementation of social norm change.

Lessons Learned

The success of APPEAL leadership trainings utilized in the LAAMPP Institute can be applied and adapted through the following lessons learned:

• Priority population involvement is critical in the initial planning stages of policy or social norm change
• Leadership development builds capacity of emerging priority population leaders in helping to advance their communities’ readiness levels to engage in tobacco control policy
• Leadership trainings must incorporate a holistic, community context steeped in a social justice and racial justice framework and address issues of structural racism and homophobia an transphobia
• Leadership training formats can have a similar impact to the LAAMPP Institute as long as they use a principle-based model
• Cross-cultural collaboration facilitated through leadership training can provide powerful results in advocacy, policy, and systems change

About this Promising Practice (Contact information)

1. Organization(s): Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership (APPEAL), Oakland, CA, USA; ClearWay Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2. Primary Contact(s): Rod Lew – APPEAL staff,  [email protected]
3. Authors: Rod Lew, MPH, Jaime Martinez, MEd, Claradina Soto, MPH, Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, PhD, MPH
4. Topic(s): leadership, tobacco control, social norm change, health equity, priority populations
5. Source: APPEAL Website – appealforhealth.org; NIH Public Access Article – Training Leaders From Priority Populations to Implement Social Norm Changes in Tobacco Control: Lessons From the LAAMPP Institute; Journal of Public Health Management and Practice Article – Developing Leaders in Priority Populations to Address Tobacco Disparities: Results From a Leadership Institute
6. Date of Publication: November 2011
7. Date of Implementation: LAAMPP (2006-2007), LAAMPP III (2012-2014)
8. Location: Minnesota
9. More details (web address for study): https://appealforhealth.org/programs/leadership-development/laampp-iii/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3814182/ and https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/Abstract/2013/01000/Developing_Leaders_in_Priority_Populations_to.17.aspx
10. Target Audience:  Community Based Organizations, Researchers, Policy Advocates