The San Francisco Tobacco Free Project is part of the Community Health Promotion and Prevention section of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive tobacco control plan for San Francisco.

Tobacco control efforts have moved away from projects that focus solely on changing individual lifestyle and behavior (helping smokers quit or educating teens not to start) to projects that mobilize community members and agencies to change environmental factors that promote unhealthy behavior such as tobacco advertising, promotion and access for minors. The Tobacco Free Project funds community based agencies to implement community capacity building projects that address these environmental factors through policy advocacy.

The intent of community capacity building is to work in collaboration with communities and provide a framework for community members to acquire the skills and resources to investigate the health of the place where they live and then plan, implement and evaluate actions that change the environment to promote health.

Fundamental to this model is a critical analysis that identifies the underlying social, economic, and environmental forces creating the health and social inequalities that the community wants to address. No discussion of improving people's health and well being can be made without looking at these inequities in the context of the global economic structures that create this inequity. No solution to dismantle these inequities can be made without the full involvement and leadership of those communities impacted most by the social and economic injustice that the global economy promotes.

Tobacco Free Project staff provide interactive trainings and technical assistance to community based organizations to facilitate a sharing of existing skills and community strengths so that the actions are community driven

It is the Tobacco Free Project's intention that community groups will find that these skills are transferable to community issues other than tobacco control, such as violence prevention, and are encouraged to integrate other community health issues into their work.

The San Francisco Tobacco Free Project funds community based organizations to implement the Community Action Model (CAM).  The CAM is based on the theory of Paulo Freire and is asset based and builds on the strengths or capacity of a community to create change from within.  The CAM is a model that focuses on mobilizing community members and agencies to change environmental factors promoting economic and environmental inequalities.  Fundamental to this model is a critical analysis that identifies the underlying social, economic and environmental forces creating the health and social inequalities that the community wants to address.  The CAM provides a five step process for community members to acquire the skills and resources to investigate the health of the place where they live and then plan, implement and evaluate actions that change the environment to promote and improve health. 

This process has resulted in a number or actions including a ban on promotional items adopted by the San Francisco School Board, a ban on smoking in most San Francisco outdoor play areas, a ban on outdoor tobacco advertising throughout San Francisco, and a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission with regards to a rise in the use of bidis (Indian cigarettes) amongst San Francisco youth. Other funded activities include:

TFP staff also provide support and technical assistance to the Tobacco Free Coalition in implementing policy campaigns for a variety of tobacco control ordinances and policies.  The San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition has successfully advocated for the adoption of several local tobacco ordinances that provide protection from exposure to second hand smoke; regulate the sale of tobacco by requiring tobacco retailers to obtain a tobacco permit, and the adoption of policies such as the Retirement Board’s divestment of tobacco stocks from the San Francisco Employees Retirement Fund.

A committee of the Tobacco Free Coalition, the Global Action Task Force (GATF), has implemented a variety of global tobacco control initiatives such as the Global Tobacco Control Policy Framework to address the global impact of tobacco. This has included an advocacy campaign for the US to support a strong and binding Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The GATF has also approached the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on numerous occasions resulting in resolutions to the Federal Government calling for U.S. based transnational tobacco companies to the same standards internationally as nationally with respect to advertising, marketing, trade practices, and pesticides etc.

Finally, the GATF  coordinated global solidarity initiatives and partnerships between TFP funded projects and tobacco control partners in countries outside of the U.S.  The GATF sponsored three educational exchanges (Intercambios) between these partners in 2000, 2002 and 2006 where partners were able to meet, learn about each other and plan joint actions. Partners from Togo, Senegal, Ecuador, El Salvador, México, Colombia, India, Thailand, Uganda, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Hong Kong and others participated and worked on projects with their San Francisco counterparts such as joint video productions, surveys of youth and policy adoption.

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For more information contact the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project,
30 Van Ness Avenue #2300, San Francisco, California, USA, 94102.
Telephone: 415-581-2448 Fax: 415-581-2492
Email: Mele Lau Email: Susana Hennessey Lavery