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Established Steering and Advisory Committees. Held two face-to-face meetings of these Committees. Created a Five-Year Strategic Plan that is being followed and monitored. Held at least three conference calls between all committee members yearly to guide the work of NLTCN. Created a Management Committee that meets monthly to manage the daily program and financial activities NLTCN, and its staff and reports to CDC.
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Maintained and strengthened NLTCN by participating in national, state and local conferences to make the Network known and the tobacco issue relevant, and thereby increasing membership to over 3,300 and improving diversity and inclusion of researchers, community leaders, state health officials and advocates.
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Facilitated learning and information sharing between Network members by publishing a monthly newsletter, action alerts, developing a Listbox listserve, creating and maintaining a website that houses a National Directory containing over 500 names of advocates and a consultant database of NLTCN's 20 experts working on tobacco control in Latino communities.
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Conducted a Zoomerang Survey in order to determine the needs of Network members and modified NLTCN Work Plans in accordance with their needs and desires.
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Published fact sheets and reports in English and Spanish about the tobacco epidemic in Latino communities, including among women, youth, and LGBT Latinos, and its impact on chronic diseases.
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Established a close relationship with Puerto Rico's Tobacco Coalition and published a "Success Story" about the importance of using comprehensive approaches to tobacco control and working to ensure that tobacco industry tactics do not gain traction on the island.
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Sponsored a survey among LGBTT Latinos in Puerto Rico in order to fill the gap in data about this community and ensure its inclusion in activities in Puerto Rico and advocated for inclusion of this community in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey and other data gathering surveys.
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Provided technical assistance to the first LGBTT health summit in Puerto Rico in 2011. This summit led to the creation of a grassroots coalition that helped convince a major insurance company to change its policies to include coverage of LGBTT partners.
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Promoted tobacco control issues by publishing media alerts, holding press conferences, and participating in interviews with TV, radio and print media when reports and/or achievements were attained.
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Created a Resource Center with over 500 documents at Indiana Latino Institute, Inc., including curricula, materials and brochures in English and Spanish, and developed a database that allows Network members to request this infromation as needed.
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Supported the work of community-based organizations in the US-Mexico border region and local efforts to make San Antonio, Texas, a smoke-free city. Will continue to support advocacy to make the state of Texas a smoke-free state. This work is coordinated by La Fe Policy Research and Education Center. Two advocacy training events were held in Austin in partnership with APPEAL, La Fe Policy Research and Education Center and Smoke-Free Texas.
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Provided Technical Assistance and/or Training to build capacity in the Latino community to support clean indoor air ordinances, stop tobacco industry sponsorship of events, support tax increases, keep tobacco budget appropriations, achieve smoke-free housing, parks, cars, and bus stops, institutionalization of tobacco cessation in community clinics, and integration of tobacco and diabetes in the states of: Indiana, Texas, Washington, Colorado, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, New York, California, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
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Advocated and testified for banning menthol cigarettes and for strong FDA regulations of tobacco products, as well as implementation of these regulations in the field.
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Encouraged researchers to assess the impact of tobacco on the population, including low and intermittent smokers and menthol users, as well as gaps in data, intervention and/or evaluation of promising and best practices and supported the publication of several peer reviewed articles on tobacco control issues in Latino communities.
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Built alliances with other National Networks in order to co-sponsor training programs, publish fact sheets and materials, launch joint policy statements, and work together in several states in order to strengthen multicultural and priority populations' capacity to move policy forward.
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Collaborated with national partners in supporting the institutionalization of cessation in community health settings by promoting culturally and linguistically appropriate cessation services through the Quitlines, joining the Board of Directors of the North American Quitline Consortium, supporting cessation efforts on the US-Mexico border, and participating in the PARTNERS coalition, including on national efforts led by the American Legacy Foundation.
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Supported the creation of the National Networks for Tobacco Control and Prevention website, which houses the six National Networks funded by CDC to address priority populations.
