SUPPORTING THE ADOPTION OF PRIORITY FUNDING INDICATORS TO IDENTIFY PRIORITY POPULATIONS AND/OR GEOGRAPHIC AREAS TO WHICH COMMUNITY BASED TOBACCO CONTROL FUNDING WILL BE ALLOCATED.

WHEREAS, the tobacco industry engages in aggressive marketing and promotion targeted at communities of color, women, youth, the Lesbian, Gay, Transgender (LGBT) community, and communities of low socio-economic status resulting in higher prevalence rates in these communities and subsequent disproportionate rates of tobacco related diseases; and

WHEREAS, the San Francisco Department of Public Health receives tobacco control monies annually from Prop 99, the 1988 tobacco tax initiative, Prop A, Master Settlement Funds to develop and implement a Comprehensive Tobacco Control Plan for San Francisco; and

WHEREAS, community-based organizations are funded to implement community capacity building (CCB) projects that address the environmental factors associated with the global tobacco epidemic; and

WHEREAS, Objective 2 of the SFDPH Strategic plan is to “decrease disparities between racial and ethnic populations and between residents of different neighborhoods”; and

WHEREAS, in support of Objective 2 of the SFDPH Strategic Plan, member organizations of the San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition propose the following indicators be used to identify vulnerable priority populations and/or geographic areas in which community-based tobacco control funding will be allocated: Community indicators: 1) access to health care, 2) percentage of population aged 5-24 years of age, 3) Country of birth, 4) Income, 5) Language isolation, 6) Race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, 7) Smoking prevalence. Geographic indicators: 8) Availability of clinics/hospitals, 9) Availability of healthy foods, 10) Tobacco retail outlet density, 11) Stationary and mobile health hazards; and

WHEREAS, adoption of the above listed priority funding indicators will institutionalize the current practices of the Tobacco Free Project’s competitive funding process. RESOLVED, that the Health Commission supports the Tobacco Free Project’s desire to target those populations most vulnerable to tobacco related health disparities by supporting the project’s utilization of the community and geographic indicators listed above to identify priority populations and/or geographic areas to which community based tobacco control funding will be allocated.

I hereby certify that the San Francisco Health Commission at its meeting of June 19, 2007 adopted the foregoing resolution.

Michele Seaton, Executive Secretary to the Health Commission