The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Public change through faith based outreach is not a new idea, but it has been refocused and reenergized within the past few years as a positive and successful method of public education. Caffee, Caffee and Associates (CCA) has successfully partnered with churches across the U.S. to bring the highly successful “Not In Mama's Kitchen” (NIMK) program to communities of color. NIMK helps communities to educate and empower families to address secondhand smoke exposure in their homes, cars and childcare facilities. CCA will invite coalition partners from community churches to present on their successes and to discuss how participants can utilize the same outreach strategies

Methods: CCA's effort focused on identifying and partnering with local church leaders, developing activities that could be utilized within a religious structure and providing appropriate technical assistance sympathetic to varying religious parameters.

Results: CCA have conducted over 100 activities and garnered over 30,000 pledges through faith based outreach. Parishioners have received in-depth information through church sponsored activities, educational materials and direct instructions and encouragement from the pulpit.