Recently I attended the Tobacco Control Evaluation Center’s Designing Effective Surveys Training in Davis. I learned a lot about designing surveys and asking good survey questions and my colleagues “guilty pleasures” (the fun icebreaker question – here’s mine).
Sometimes, less is more. While honeymooning in the land down under, I came across these anti-smoking signs prominently displayed at retail stores throughout Sydney. I was struck by how simple and direct these signs were. No flashy graphics- just simply text: “Smoking Kills” along with cessation information. Another thing I liked was that an individual could only buy tobacco products from a specific register. I was curious as to when these policies were enacted- a quick search on Google led me to the New South Wales (NSW) Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2008.
Over the past few years it’s been easy to get complacent about tobacco retailer licensing ordinances. Not that they are easy, because they aren’t. But it’s not that often that there is strong opposition to the ordinances at council meetings. But that’s not true anymore. Recently the Neighborhood Market Association (NMA) has begun showing up to city council meetings and opposing tobacco retailer licensing and other retail environment policies. They had been active in their home base of San Diego, but now they are speaking out across the state, and one of the first places they appeared was the City of Fresno. Read More »
Working in tobacco control has afforded me opportunities to collaborate with great minds, movers, and shakers all across California. While I find the experiences enriching, there are times when I feel like I am in a bubble and I don’t often see much of anything going on outside of tobacco policy and prevention. That all changed when I attended the Midwest Academy ‘s “Organizing for Social Change” training last month.
By Guest Blogger – Jacob Delbridge, Intern, The Center for Tobacco Policy & Organizing
Growing up in the outstandingly progressive city of Berkeley, I was trained at a young age about the dangers of smoking. None of my immediate family smoked. None of my friends’ families smoked. In fact, I knew one smoker: a great aunt who lived in New York. Fortunately, I was far removed from a world of toxic secondhand smoke. While I do not believe I was sheltered or coddled, I did come to the false impression that only the very rare few used tobacco and that a smoke-filled childhood was an occurrence that existed only in public service announcements, commercials and advertisements.
Recently I attended the Tobacco Control Evaluation Center’s Designing Effective Surveys Training in Davis. I learned a lot about designing surveys and asking good survey questions and my colleagues “guilty pleasures” (the fun icebreaker question – here’s mine).
