The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

This entire session chronicles the history of tobacco use among communities of color in the U.S. from the sacred use by Native Americans, to the tobacco growing and manufacturing by Africans Americans and the increase of targeting and use by immigrant groups and worldwide. This session will also highlight ongoing challenges facing U.S. communities of color to achieve parity in tobacco control and some innovative prevention, policy and capacity building approaches.

This specific presentation will focus on tobacco's impact on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) including trends of tobacco use particularly among some of the AAPI subgroups with the highest prevalence and the history of targeting by the tobacco industry.

This presentation will also highlight two community capacity building models for reducing tobacco disparities in the AAPI community and other diverse communities. The APPEAL Stages of Readiness Model which helps assess and advance diverse communities through tobacco control. The APPEAL Stages of Readiness Model has been used as an assessment, development, process evaluation and advocacy tool for tobacco control in diverse communities that have different capacities and infrastructure.

The APPEAL Leadership Model and its impact on building capacity, mobilizing communities, and advancing tobacco control particularly in communities of color and other priority populations. This session will summarize the principles and key elements of the model and also provide key contributions from diverse communities. It will also highlight how the model helped them mobilize communities around tobacco and initiate successful tobacco control activities and policy actions.