Tobacco Demonstration Project Design

NIICHRO has received funding to design a demonstration project. In the design phase we will assess current CHR anti-smoking activities to determine what training and other resources are required to expand their role to allow them to act as community leaders and coordinators in a community-based tobacco control program that will be developed for the Demonstration Project stage.

Two recent studies of tobacco control Best Practices for First Nations and Inuit people have stressed the importance of community-based efforts, community-based coordination, cultural sensitivity, a focus on youth, and sustained effort as key elements in the success of tobacco control initiatives.2 A recent environmental scan added the importance of developing community leadership as an essential ingredient to success.3
The Demonstration Project NIICHRO will be preparing will be built around the principles contained in the Best Practices reports and will take advantage of the CHRs’ unique position as community-based health workers — who work on a daily basis with youth, women and Elders — to develop their potential to play a leadership role in tobacco protection, prevention, cessation, and harm reduction.

An important element in the Design Project will be to review the current status of CHR tobacco control knowledge and resources and to identify training and resource gaps and any barriers to the tobacco control message. When these gaps are identified, the Demonstration Project can be developed to respond to them and to implement a strategy that will allow CHRs to take a leadership role in community tobacco control activities.

The Design Project will have two main parts. The first will be reviewing current regional scans and Best Practices studies, as well as current tobacco control resources for Aboriginal people. The second will be assessing the CHRs’ role in current tobacco control activities, their current resources and existing community partnerships.

1 National First Nations and Inuit Injury Prevention Working Group, Terms of Reference, January 2003.
2 These elements were all underlined as essential in two recent Best Practices reports submitted to Health Canada: Aboriginal Tobacco Control—Promising Strategies and Potential Best Practices (John Marriott and Ann L. Mable, Oct. 28, 2002); and First Nations and Inuit Tobacco Control Strategy: Building Best Practices with Community (Vivian R. Ramsden, RN and Bonita Beatty, October 31, 2002).
3 First Nations and Inuit Tobacco Control Strategy: Summary of Regional Environmental Scans and Consultations (Laurel Lemchuk-Favel, November 18, 2002)