Goal / Mission

Families in Good Health (FIGH), a Dignity Health Systems program based in Long Beach, CA, hoped to create a platform for multilingual, multicultural health and social education for Los Angeles youth. The goal was to ensure equitable and equal access to opportunities for all people to lead healthy lives and eliminate the tobacco epidemic for all population groups. FIGH created the Los Angeles Tobacco Prevention Network (LATPN) to advocate for smoke-free policies in their communities and to support a smoke-free ordinance in the state.

Description

Families in Good Health (FIGH) created Los Angeles Tobacco Prevention Network (LATPN), a tobacco control coalition, to advocate for smoke-free policies in their communities and to support a smoke-free ordinance in California. The coalition’s youth and adult leaders partnered with other community coalitions including Coalition for A Smoke Free Long Beach and Advocates Invested in Restoring the Environment (AIRE) to empower youth and community leaders as advocates for smoke-free environments.

Community coalition work to support advocacy, education, and meetings with city council brought further attention to tobacco policies in the greater Los Angeles area. Through the work of the coalition, LAPTN hopes to encourage city council to prioritize smoke-free policies for multi-unit housing and outdoor dining in South Bay and San Gabriel Valley. LAPTN and AIRE work to ensure the community and public is aware of the overall harmful impact and effects of the tobacco industry on the local communities and to show residents of the area the industry targeting strategies used to entice people to nicotine use. A general focus is placed around comprehensive smoke-free places and how to adopt and adapt policy as one transitions to other cities in Los Angeles County.

 Implementation Process

A community readiness assessment was performed and used to inform coalition stakeholder building and shape the constituency for policy work. FIGH worked to build capacity with LAPTN and to create opportunities for youth to develop leadership skills. To increase community engagement efforts, FIGH started with a youth coalition of 5 members that was later expanded to 15 youth coalition members to provide outreach and awareness of the risks of commercial tobacco and rewards of smokefree policies for sustaining healthy communities.

The youth and adult coalitions collected data and knocked on doors to advocate for prioritizing smokefree outdoor areas and smokefree multi-unit housing. They utilized surveys, petitions, and statistical data collected to demonstrate tobacco disparities and the need for a healthier built environment. The information gathered by the coalition was shared through presentations at the local level (including city council meetings) to champion and support smokefree tobacco control policies in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.

The coalitions connected with city council in Los Angeles County and neighboring communities in California including Rosewood, Long Beach, Torrance, and Rosemead. LAPTN was able to get city council to support and prioritize these smokefree policies. FIGH continues to advocate for smokefree outdoor areas, multi-unit housing, and public events and educate communities on the dangers of smoking through mass communications, social meda, video production campaigns, coalition building and hosting a youth summit, educational training sessions, and speaking panels in Los Angeles.

Impact / Results / Accomplishments / Outcomes

The impact of this project was that Families in Good Health (FIGH) created Los Angeles Tobacco Prevention Network (LATPN), a tobacco control coalition, to advocate for smoke-free policies in California. LATPN partnered with other community coalitions to advocate for and support a smoke-free ordinance in California.

The coalitions continue to encourage city council to prioritize smoke-free policies for multi-unit housing and outdoor dining in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. LAPTN and AIRE ere able to educate the public on the harmful effects of the tobacco industry on the local communities.

Lessons Learned

The success of the community driven smoke free policies at FIGH/Dignity can be applied and adapted from the following lessons learned:

• Assess community readiness at institutional, local, city, county, and state levels for current policy priorities and community needs
• Engage youth and adult coalition members in planning and prioritizing smoke free policy changes
• Encourage community voices during city council meetings and craft elevator pitches for youth and adults to use when presenting information regarding the importance of smoke free areas for continued development of healthy communities to policy makers
• Use equity centered social justice framing

About this Promising Practice (Contact information)

1. Organization(s): Families in Good Health (FIGH/ Dignity Health Systems, APPEAL
2. Primary Contact(s): APPEAL staff, Rod Lew [email protected] and Michelle Jeu [email protected]; FIGH staff, Ladine Chan [email protected] and Veasna Mai [email protected]
3. Authors: APPEAL Staff with informant interviews from FIGH staff Ladine Chan and Veasna Mai
4. Topic(s): Smokefree Policies, Commerical Tobacco Control
5. Source:  APPEAL Staff with informant interviews from FIGH staff Ladine Chan and Veasna Mai
6. Date of Publication: N/A
7. Date of Implementation: N/A
8. Location: Long Beach, CA and Greater Los Angeles, CA metropolitan area
9. More details (web address for study):
   1. https://www.dignityhealth.org/socal/locations/stmarymedical/about-us/community-benefits/families-in-good-health
   2. https://www.changelabsolutions.org/product/framing-tobacco-disparities
10. Target Audience: Tobacco Coalitions, Policy makers, Community Based Organizations