About Harambee

FYI: Minority Resources…Money & More

In 2001, the TPCP at the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) engaged a diverse workgroup to strategies about a process to identify and eliminate tobacco- related disparities that exist in Utah. This workgroup established five goals:

1. Minimize gaps in data that limit the identification of tobacco- related disparities.
2 .Create a comprehensive communication network among disparately affected populations.
3. Ensure that all program and material development is culturally and linguistically competent.
4. Increase the capacity to reduce tobacco use among disparately affected populations.
5 .Educate and influence state and local policy makers and community opinion leaders about tobacco- related disparities.

Project Success Coalition/ Harambee African American TPCN is one of the networks created to address tobacco prevention and control disparity issues in the state of Utah. Harambee means “pulling together” in Swahili. It has been this pulling together that contributed to the overall decease of tobacco use in Utah. Since the Master Settlement Agreement-funded programs were initiated, Utah adult smoking decreased by 25% from 14.0% in 1999 to 10.5% in 2004. But there is much work to be done in the African American community.
Although tobacco use rates have declined, more than 1,100 Utahans still die each year from smoking related causes. Furthermore, according to the Fifth Annual Report of the TPCN, the Utah economy loses an estimated $530 million to smoking-attributable medical and productivity costs each year. A long term commitment to tobacco control is necessary to save lives and reduce smoking –related health care and losses of productivity costs.
A contributing factor to the decrease in the overall number of smokers in Utah is due in part to the TRUTH campaign. This multiple media campaign educates Utahans about the dangers of tobacco and motivates people to avoid tobacco use and to create smoke free environments.

Vision

To Send the Call and To Sound the Alarm for A Tobacco Free African American Community in Utah.

Mission

To Send the Call and To Sound the Alarm for A Tobacco Free African American Community in Utah.