Perspectives from the front lines of tobacco control.

This research is designed to share valuable experiences and transferable principles from program staff of the Legacy/Community Voices initiative who have been involved in planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining tobacco control activities in underserved communities. Interviews were conducted with 13 front line staff from 9 sites: Alameda County, California; Detroit, Michigan; El Paso, Texas; Ingham County, Michigan; Miami, Florida; New Mexico; North Carolina; Northern Manhattan; and West Virginia. A model emerged from these interviews that places the life cycle of a program in a central position, with many of the identified themes (working with local champions, obtaining support from multiple partners, increasing organizational capacity) repeated throughout, albeit in different forms at different stages.

People Improving the Community's Health: community health workers as agents of change.

People Improving the Community's Health (PITCH) uses teams of community health workers to provide targeted outreach, to enroll those eligible in health coverage plans, to provide information and linkages to health and social support services, and to engage community members in community improvement activities. The initiative is based on the assumption that communities must work on the determinants of health and effectively mobilize all their assets to improve not only individual health, but also community health. Developed with support from the Kellogg Foundation's Community Voices Initiative, PITCH addresses intertwined public health concerns about access to health care and community health improvement.