Qualitative Evaluation of Community Mobilization for Smoking Cessation

The research reported upon comprises a (primarily qualitative) evaluation in the only Canadian intervention site (Brantford, Ontario) of one of the largest community-based health promotion projects in North America: the Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT). This was a randomized control trial involving 11 intervention communities in North America (each with a matched control community). Planning began in 1986, with the 4 year intervention period beginning in 1989, followed by data analysis and reporting (trial outcome data to be released late spring 1995). The goals of the trial were four-fold: (1) increase the priority of smoking as a public health issue; (2) increase the community’s capacity to modify smoking behaviour; (3) increase the influence of existing policy and economic factors that discourage smoking within the community; and (4) increase social norms and values supporting non-smoking. The organizational structure of the project included the formation of local partnerships of a community board and a research institute (university) for each site, and the creation of a minimum of four task forces focused on different intermediary change channels in the community for the implementation of the 59+ annual activities mandated as part of the standardized intervention protocol: (1) health careproviders; (2) worksites & organizations; (3) cessation resources & services; (4) public education.