PROMISE Network Webinar Highlights Strategies for Promoting Smoke-free Multiunit Housing Policies in Diverse Communities
To share strategies that community-based organizations have used to engage diverse communities in tobacco control, on March 21, 2013 the APPEAL PROMISE Network hosted a webinar on promoting smoke-free multiunit housing policies with guest speakers Christine Araquel from the People’s Community Organization for Reform and Empowerment (People’s CORE) in Los Angeles, California and Ekta Prakash from CAPI USA in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
To share strategies that community-based organizations have used to engage diverse communities in tobacco control, on March 21, 2013 the APPEAL PROMISE Network hosted a webinar on promoting smoke-free multiunit housing policies with guest speakers Christine Araquel from the People’s Community Organization for Reform and Empowerment (People’s CORE) in Los Angeles, California and Ekta Prakash from CAPI USA in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ms. Araquel described People’s CORE’s Smoke-Free Apartments Project, which engaged residents in Asian American and Pacific Islander neighborhoods in Central Los Angeles in support of voluntary smoke-free policies in outdoor common areas at their apartment complexes. Ms. Prakash presented on CAPI’s Healthy Homes, Healthy Communities program and its work towards smoke-free policies in Minneapolis public housing, which has diverse residents including African and Asian immigrants and refugees.
Both speakers emphasized that a key step in working with diverse communities was extensive outreach at specific community-specific cultural events and settings, and listening to community concerns. Both People’s CORE and CAPI also included language access as an important part of their work with diverse communities; having staff who could speak Tagalog, Somali, and other appropriate languages and having in-language educational materials – were critical to each projects’ success.
If you were unable to attend the webinar and would like to learn more, the presentation slides are available on the APPEAL website at www.appealforcommunities.org/presentations.