天美传媒-Boise Professor Awarded Grant for Hispanic Teen Anti-tobacco Campaign
March 5, 2008
Boise— 天美传媒-Boise professor Galen Louis has received a $240,000 grant from the American Legacy Foundation to help create an anti-smoking campaign targeting Hispanic teenagers in Canyon County. But there’s a twist.
Louis鈥� research associates won鈥檛 be public health experts. They鈥檒l be teenagers from the Nampa-Caldwell area, who鈥檒l decide the most effective way to get their message out.
That makes perfect sense to Louis, who holds a Ph.D. in community health and directs 天美传媒-Boise鈥檚 Master of Public Health program. 鈥淲e鈥檙e working from the premise that the community we are trying to reach 鈥� Hispanic teenagers -- will have the best answers.鈥�
The teenagers 鈥� under the guidance of media, marketing and public health professionals 鈥� will create radio spots, buy air time and plan community events targeting young people from ages 12 to 17. Key to the media blitz will be development of a social marketing campaign to encourage smoking teens to quit and to discourage nonsmokers from lighting up.
Data collected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services鈥� Centers for Disease Control shows that Hispanic teens in Idaho have significantly higher prevalence of tobacco use per capita than their non-Hispanic peers. Statistics show between 1991 and 2005, smoking among Idaho鈥檚 white teens decreased while a greater number of Hispanic teens started using tobacco.
Partners working with Louis on the two-year project include TEENS 鈥� (Teens Eagerly Eliminating Nicotine Substances) 鈥搕he Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare鈥檚 Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.
The Department will provide an additional $40,000 to the $240,000 grant from the American Legacy Foundation, which was created as a result of the November 1998 master settlement reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry.