Vietnamese Tobacco Reduction
The program is a multi-layered initiative involving all segments of Vietnamese society in Edmonton. The initiative includes awareness raising and public education, focused education for specific groups, stop-smoking incentives, counseling, social support systems for smokers and smokers families, and peer support groups and peer reinforcement.
Lan Kwok, Program Manager & Dave Hubert, President VCFS
Program objectives
- Reduce the number of smokers in Edmonton’s Vietnamese community
- Alert all Vietnamese families, and all the individual members of each family, to the dangers of second hand smoke.
- Counteract the prevailing Vietnamese cultural acceptance of smoking and educate the Vietnamese population of Edmonton about the costs of smoking.
- Educate Vietnamese students in the Edmonton Public and Edmonton Separate School Districts to the dangers of smoking and of inhaling second hand smoke.
- Obtain the compliance of Edmonton Vietnamese retailers in eliminating tobacco sales to youth.
- Counteract the growing acceptance of smoking among young Vietnamese girls and women.
- Provide a model for a successful tobacco reduction program for other cities in western Canada.