State Archive10/22/2010 Break Free Alliance pilots tobacco cessation manual in partnership with Louisiana Department of Public Safety and CorrectionsThe Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections partnered with Break Free Alliance in piloting the second edition of Tobacco Cessation for Correctional Populations: A Health Education Manual. Overall the second edition was piloted at three sites in Louisiana: the Elayn Hunt Correction Center, the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, and the Louisiana State Penitentiary. 10/19/2010 The National LGBT Tobacco Control Network provides cultural competency training for North Dakota Department of HealthThe North Dakota Department of Health invited the National LGBT Tobacco Control Network to Bismarck for their Annual Statewide Alcohol and Substance Abuse Summit and their quarterly sites meeting of CDC grantees. Gustavo Torrez, Program Manager for the Network, conducted a LGBT Cultural Competency Training during one of the breakouts at the summit and for their quarterly sites meeting of CDC grantees. During both presentations, the Network linked with Sharri Paxon, a local North Dakotan to explain the local tobacco control climate and to connect participants with a local advocate willing to assist them in their work. As a result of this collaboration, new connections were made to strengthen tobacco control efforts throughout North Dakota, particularly in addressing the tobacco related disparities faced by LGBT communities. By The National LGBT Tobacco Control Network 2009 Developing relationships between LGBT communities and government agencies in Minnesota, Iowa, California"Prevention and cessation programs work best when they are tailored to specific communities. This allows individuals to identify with the process and to feel that they are in a safe environment that acknowledges their identity. The smoking disparities for the LGBT population are huge and they need attention from officials at the state level as well as from leaders within the LGBT community. We are able to make those connections and create bridges between the LGBT community and the state so that they can work together to reach out to those being disproportionately affected by tobacco. The National LGBT Tobacco Control Network has worked with quitlines from Minnesota, Iowa and California as well as the North American Quitline Consortium. We have a membership with NAQC and have been involved with their data collection. We also gave a presentation on marketing techniques for smoking cessation and prevention in the LGBT community at the NAQC conference in February 2007. In California, we worked with the quitline to create a position statement and in Iowa we helped the quitlines gain funding through a American Legacy Foundation grant. In Minnesota, we have been contracted to work with the quitlines in making sure that staff are trained in cultural competency, to test a quitline question that appropriately includes transgender as a category, and to update existing LGBT material. Our most rewarding communication links to the states have been the 3 CDC/quitline meetings where states have been convened and we present and/or engage in individual discussions with representatives. Our focus has been on training around outreach to the community, cultural competency training and advising about materials. For most states, this is the first LGBT cultural competency training that they have ever had and hopefully the work will continue to spread into other areas the state can address. " |
