Grants available to help spread ‘no smoking’ message

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living is offering four community program grants n totaling nearly $25,000 each n to help educate youths on the effects of media advertisements.

The grants are intended to further the TFL’s MediaSharp program, which is designed to help young people understand how media messages influence their health and spending behaviors, particularly related to tobacco products.

According to Thibodaux Area Regional Coordinator Tante Chatman, the TFL grant application is available for download at www.tobaccofreeliving.org. The deadline for submission is April 16 at 4 p.m.

Chatman said the community program award will be announced on June 1.

The one year of funding begins July 1.

Interested organizations must have proof of up-to-date 501c3 tax-exempt status, Chatman said.

“Community program grants are part of TFL’s broad reaching efforts to empower organizations to reduce the toll of tobacco use in their communities,” TFL steering committee chairman Dr. Charles Brown said.

“MediaSharp is a proven curriculum that helps young people understand how they are being targeted by the tobacco industry through deceptive advertising tactics, sponsorships, and messages designed to lure them into developing behaviors that have dangerous, lifelong health implications. By engaging and supporting partners at the community level, we are continuing to raise awareness about deceptive tobacco industry advertising tactics and the dangers of tobacco use in an effort to reduce youth tobacco use rate and ultimately save lives,” Brown continued at a TFL press conference.

TFL officials said the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, another non-profit organization, has determined the tobacco industry spends $284.9 million annually to market its products in Louisiana alone. It estimates that more than 107,000 Louisiana children will die prematurely from smoking and smoking-related diseases.

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living provides statewide coordination of existing tobacco control initiatives, funds innovative community program for tobacco control and develops statewide media campaigns to help reduce the excessive burden of tobacco use on the state’s resources to improve the overall health and quality of life.

“By exposing the tobacco industry’s deliberate and calculated efforts to mislead and recruit young smokers, our children will gain knowledge and confidence they need to make the choice not to smoke or to quit,” Chatman said. “Preventing young people from starting to use tobacco in the first place is ultimately the most effective way to reduce death and disease caused by tobacco use.”

For more information, contact Chatman at (985) 447-0916, extension 350, or by e-mail at tchatman@lphi.org.