Church leaders' tobacco opinions: send materials, not money.

In addition to personnel challenges,faith-based organizations (FBOs) face tangible challenges to implementing tobacco use prevention programs, such as finding materials that fit within their mission and financial backing to support the program. The present project surveyed 71 FBO leaders about these challenges with two open-ended questions that asked what would help and hinder them from delivering a tobacco prevention program, and Likert questionnaires on advocacy, efficacy, impact, policy, burnout, and morality. On what would help them deliver a tobacco prevention program, the most common answer was materials, about half of present FBO leaders gave this answer.

Church leaders' tobacco opinions: send materials, not money.

In addition to personnel challenges,faith-based organizations (FBOs) face tangible challenges to implementing tobacco use prevention programs, such as finding materials that fit within their mission and financial backing to support the program. The present project surveyed 71 FBO leaders about these challenges with two open-ended questions that asked what would help and hinder them from delivering a tobacco prevention program, and Likert questionnaires on advocacy, efficacy, impact, policy, burnout, and morality. On what would help them deliver a tobacco prevention program, the most common answer was materials; about half of present FBO leaders gave this answer.

Collecting health data with youth at faith-based institutions: lessons learned.

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) are ideal for health promotion but can present unique challenges in data collection. The present initiative included 6 years of awards to mostly small, rural, predominantly African American FBOs to conduct tobacco prevention lessons for youth in Grades 4-6 while they were attending summer Vacation Bible School. In 2005, these awards included $1,500 disbursed to 64 geographically diverse FBOs who had never before received this funding.

Programmatic evaluation of college initiatives to reduce tobacco use.

College students are particularly vulnerable to tobacco initiation and use, but college prevention services are rare and often unevaluated. The present project evaluated 27 tobacco use prevention initiatives on college campuses in one southern U.S.

Three years of evaluating community tobacco prevention coalitions: lessons learned.

Though challenging, evaluation is essential for successful coalitions. In three years of annual evaluations of 30 tobacco prevention coalitions, lessons learned involve contracts, people (leaders, board members, oversight staff), and entire coalitions. Contracts should adjust within limits, include all work requirements, promote networking, and link directly to evaluation.

Faith-based leaders' opinions before and after a youth tobacco prevention workshop.

To determine if religious leaders' (N = 253) opinions changed after a 1-day workshop on integrating a "Students Working Against Tobacco" educational program into Sunday school or other youth programs at church, participants, most of whom were African-American, completed a pretest and posttest survey. Leaders' opinions regarding their expertise in this area reflected more confidence following the workshop. Both before and after the workshop, they were firm in their belief that tobacco prevention programs have an impact and that tobacco use could be prevented.

Sustaining tobacco control coalitions amid declining resources.

Mississippi is unique among the 50 states in settling a lawsuit against tobacco companies earlier than the Master Settlement Agreement, devoting a relatively high amount of per capita funding on tobacco control, and avoiding tobacco-control budget cuts. Using a social-ecological approach combining insider and outsider strategies, tobacco-prevention coalitions in Mississippi succeeded in sustaining funding despite serious obstacles. Lessons learned included taking specific actions to embed themselves in the local community, wisely aligning with legislators, choosing courageous and effective champions, and ensuring that people are keenly aware of their existence and efforts.

School nurses' opinions about the prevention of tobacco use.

To further understand school nurses' tobacco policy beliefs and attitudes toward tobacco companies, a convenience sample of 53 school nurses completed questionnaires about anti-tobacco policies and attitudes toward tobacco companies. Overall, these nurses strongly agreed with tobacco policies such as banning youths from wearing clothing with a tobacco logo to school and fining restaurant owners who permit smoking. In addition, these nurses on average were negative toward tobacco companies.

Anti-tobacco messages from different sources make a difference with secondary school students.

Mass media campaigns are often effective in reducing tobacco use, but research has typically focused on these campaigns without considering other sources of anti-tobacco information. The present study examined whether the number of sources of anti-tobacco information (family, sports, and other community events, advertisements, and the Internet), made a difference in use and attitudes of high school students. A representative sample of 1,151 students in grades 6 to 12 in one southeastern state were interviewed at school on cell phones provided by researchers.

Public education campaign heightens awareness that youth model authorities' tobacco use.

To evaluate whether people changed their views about acceptability of authority figures smoking after an anti-tobacco initiative, randomly selected southeastern U.S. voters (801 in 2001; 806 in 2002) responded to a 20-minute telephone interview.

Joys and tribulations of faith-based youth tobacco use prevention: a case study in Mississippi.

Faith-based health promotion initiatives are resurging in popularity among health promoters and providers, but few programs are systematic, large-scale, and funded at the state level. One exception is an initiative by the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi (PHM), a nonprofit organization funded by tobacco settlement monies. PHM funded churches and other faith-based organizations to implement a grassroots youth tobacco use prevention program to coincide with other community- and school-based efforts.

Nonprofit organizations versus government agencies to reduce tobacco use.

Tobacco settlement money can be allocated to nonprofit organizations or government agencies. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Nonprofit organizations may have relatively (a) more efficiency/flexibility, but less accountability; (b) narrower focus, but less experience; (c) more ability to advocate, but more obligations; (d) more independence from tobacco industry influence, but less funding; and, (e) more public trust, but less visibility.

Adolescents' attitudes and self-perceptions about anti-tobacco advocacy.

Communities are organizing into coalitions with the goal of reducing tobacco use, particularly among youth. Adolescents could make effective and persuasive anti-tobacco advocates in their respective communities, but their attitudes about tobacco advocacy and their perceptions of their own abilities as advocates are unknown. Therefore, the present project assessed attitudes and self-perceptions about anti-tobacco advocacy in 159 high school students attending a tobacco advocacy conference.

Media campaign influences parents' opinions about their children and tobacco.

Unlabelled: The study assessed the effectiveness of a media campaign in convincing parents that children are targeted by the tobacco industry and that children should be banned from tobacco use. An 800-parent sample survey was conducted prior to a statewide anti-tobacco campaign, and another survey sample of 790 parents was conducted afterward.

The Results: Though parents who smoked in high school and those who did not agreed that children are targeted and should be banned from tobacco use, parents who did not smoke in high school believed it more strongly.

Ethnic similarities and differences in early elementary teachers' responses to tobacco prevention.

To explore ethnic differences in teachers' responses to tobacco prevention, 604 teachers, 26.6% of whom were African American (AA), attended an initial workshop, and 502 completed a four-week follow-up. Class sizes were equivalent, but AA teachers reported teaching relatively more AA students and fewer White students.