Coalition building in rural areas – 7/24/12

Q: A state would like to learn how others have addressed the following challenges and barriers to coalition building, advocacy, and tobacco education in rural areas. Their questions are:

  1. Beyond the standard practices for building and maintaining a coalition (such as those mentioned here, in the CDC’s Best Practices User Guide on Coalitions), what are some strategies that have worked well in rural areas for engaging coalition members and getting them involved in your coalition’s work? What strategies have worked well for keeping members of a rural coalition engaged?
     
  2. How do local coalitions in rural areas involve partners who aren’t members of the coalition but would like to support your efforts?
     
  3. What are other ways local coalitions in rural areas can tailor tobacco control strategies to be more locally relevant? In other words, how have you translated and put into action Best Practices and evidence-based guidelines to make them more appropriate to local situations / community characteristics?
     
  4. In a rural or small-town setting, the business owners, legislators, and other decision-makers you are trying to educate about policy change may be family members, friends, or acquaintances. In a small community, how do you educate about tobacco control policies and programs without coming off as overbearing or harming those preexisting relationships?
     
  5. How have you kept tobacco control a priority when there are other important public health issues the community is grappling with?
     
  6. What has worked well for dealing with resistance from decision-makers who are personally opposed to making a policy change? For example, there was a case where a local school will not become tobacco-free because a key decision-maker is a tobacco user who has a personal interest in continuing to use tobacco at the school. In another example, a local coalition has demonstrated community support for a tobacco-free parks policy, but the city council will not enact a tobacco-free policy because councilmembers are personally opposed to the legislation.

In addition to sharing your advice and experiences, please provide copies of any tools you’ve created to help local coalitions address the aforementioned challenges. As you respond, feel free to pick and choose from the above items – it’s okay if you aren’t able to respond to every question. Advice on any of these points is very much appreciated.

A:

  1. Alabama: Click here to read the full response from the Alabama tobacco program’s Local Support Coordinator.
     
  2. California: Attached are generic power point presentations and handout materials utilized in regional trainings with our tobacco control funded agencies which can serve as the core for coalition building. The following PowerPoint content and references are generic building blocks that are applicable universally:
     
    Walk the Talk: Creating Powerful Communications with Priority Populations
    Trainer: Gwen Young, Young Communications (contact information available upon request)
     
    Effective coalition interactions begin with effective communication. The spoken language and the method that it is spoken in serves as the gateway for building coalitions. This includes knowing the best communication style, and priorities of interest/how to relate generically, as well as how to relate your priority in an appealing manner. Thus, don’t under estimate the power of communication.
     
    Community Asset Mapping
    Trainer: Onjewel Smith, Southern States Regional Consultant, ANR Foundation (contact information available upon request)
     
    Introduced as a tool to assist projects to identify non-traditional partners, service providers, associations, institutions, community leaders (cultural guides, key informants, etc.), businesses, etc. in respective areas. Coalitions should reflect the local demographics, thus rather than relying on the faithful few that traditionally sit at the table, there should be an investment in really discovering other under-utilized, unknown assets in a respective community. Asset mapping is a resource tool to assist projects to know only know the totality of their respective communities, but to broaden the reach reflective of the demographics.
     
    Drilling Down: Using Coalitions to Change Social Norms
    Trainers: Mele Lau-Smith & Carol McGruder (contact information available upon request)
     
    Topics include: the “rules of engagement” for coalitions, outreach strategies, and tips for sustaining relationships.
     
    Additional resources and references:
     
  3. Indiana: All of our rural coalitions (about 31 counties) struggle with the issues presented by these questions. Read Indiana’s full response here.
     
  4. Oklahoma: To formulate Oklahoma’s response, we received feedback from ten programs located across the state as well as from the State Health Department. Click here to read the full response.
     
  5. Oklahoma 2: Click here for things that have helped in Texas County.
     
  6. Oregon: This response was co-developed by a Community Programs Liaison with the Oregon tobacco program and a local rural program coordinator. Thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts. Click here for Oregon’s response.

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Additional Resources:

    The rural population in the U.S. suffers greatly with high rates of tobacco use, secondhand smoke exposure, and tobacco-related illnesses. The following resources address these issues, providing an overview of rural tobacco use in rural areas, challenges and things to consider when planning tobacco control activities in these areas, and potential solutions.

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