Chuck Wolfe

Monday, September 27 1999

Thank you Chuck for accepting our "rendez-vous"  May I ask you to introduce yourself ?

I am happy to tell you briefly that I am honored to be talking to you about the American Legacy Foundation's work to promote tobacco free generations. I have only recently entered the fight against tobacco. I was asked by the late governor of Florida, Lawton Chiles, to build and manage an anti tobacco program with the funds Florida received from its settlement with the Tobacco Industry in September of 1997.

My background was in business and politics and I welcomed the opportunity to merge some of the tactics used in those fields with this public health effort. Florida attempted a new approach of empowering youth to lead this effort themselves. Florida had to limit its activity to youth in the early stages because of their settlement's terms. These lessons are mush of what I have encouraged the Legacy Foundation to follow.

1. The master settlement agreement between the attorneys general and the tobacco companies was signed on November 23, 1998; the American Legacy Foundation was established in March 1999.
Your yearly campaign budget for the next five years is $ 250 to 300 million, paid by the tobacco companies. You just held a press conference (the same day Janet Reno announced the DOJ was suing the tobacco industry!) that looked very much focused on youth. How do you intend to "engage youth"?
Isn't "youth" a generic term that puts together a very diverse population? How are you going to deal with this diversity in ages, sexes, languages, environments, socio-economic status?

Engaging youth is similar to empowering them in our minds. When young people learn that the tobacco industry, this bunch of older adults in suits and ties in fancy offices, has been targeting their generation to use tobacco products they get upset and they want to do something about it.

Our role will be to provide them with the adequate resources to make a difference.

We will engage them by including a young person on the Board of Directors and by including young people in all program decisions.

Youth does represent a large population group, which on its own is very diverse. The most important thing for us to remember is that young people communicate best with other young people. So as long as the communication stays within their age group and is not adults telling them what to do all of the diversity issues can be handled by them.

2. What about the "non-youth"?
The tobacco industry likes to narrow the field of tobacco control to preventing "youth" to start smoking but what about all the other issues?
Are you also going to engage the people older than 18?

First, we understand the industry has expanded its efforts to market to college youth and this plays a direct role to high school students who have friends and siblings in college. We won't cut off our efforts at age 18.

Second, by our very nature we are engaging people over 18. All staff to date and board members to date are over 18 so I would say we adults are well represented and engaged. The tobacco control community is in good hands with passionate adults.

Third, programs for adults will be initiated after we have kicked off the youth effort. The Foundation has chosen to start with youth to demonstrate by example that one of the main reasons for filing the lawsuits in the first place was to reduce youth tobacco use and end the targeting by the industry.

3. You are going to work with (at least) 46 states.
Do you envision some sort of "interstate cooperation"?
Are you going to provide incentives for cooperation and joined projects while for the moment it looks more (to me) like each state keeps a quite independent approach?

This is the heart of where our success will be won or lost. The states will receive 200 times the money the Foundation has. If the state money or a portion of it is put towards tobacco control we can have the beginning of a beautiful partnership. If it is not, partnerships will be hard to build. Let me give you an example of our first steps on this issue.

A. To determine the extent of tobacco use among youth in each state we are encouraging the use of a "youth tobacco survey." This instrument was developed by some of the first settling states so they could determine what effects their programs have. This data is incredibly helpful to build a state program. So the Foundation has partnered with the Centers For Disease control and Prevention and more specifically with the CDC Foundation to provide the states with assistance in administering this survey.

B. As we kick off a national youth program in early 2000 we will encourage states to build statewide youth prevention efforts. These efforts can include a variety of programs and the specifics can be developed by youth in the states. The Foundation will be offering grants to states who follow some model guidelines in developing these programs and networks within their states. We hope this offers some degree of cooperation and integration of effort between an individual state, its neighbors, and the national effort.

C. There will be more such examples of cooperation to come. These will include a national forum for discussion of tobacco items, additional technical assistance, and development of special populations programs.

4. One of your goals is "education".
In my opinion school based programs have been neglected while certain individuals who are very active (like Jeffrey Wygand or Dave Goerlitz) have received very little institutional and financial support.
Are you going to work with committed teachers (at all levels) and will outstanding individuals also get a chance to be part of your efforts?

I am confident that all those committed to tobacco control will be included in efforts funded by the Foundation. Through our technical assistance efforts and state grants I envision states having a dramatic opportunity in educational arenas. Much of that is contingent however on states appropriating their funds for this effort.

5. Is the foundation a US only institution or will you also reach out toward countries and groups outside of the US, as the tobacco industry does?

Yes, the Foundation is limited to US based programs. However, this does not mean we will not be involved in learning from and sharing with our international partners in tobacco control.

 

Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Let me just say how blessed I feel to work on this project. As a newcomer to Tobacco Control I am constantly humbled by folks who have been in this fight for such a long time. One of the things I am constantly reminding those I work with is to stay focused on the big picture. As this Foundation gets off the ground and finds its way in the tobacco control community we will have many challenges. You should know that despite these challenges we will remain focused on the endgame - promoting tobacco free generations. The Board of the Legacy Foundation is committed to this focus and with the help of all our partners I am convinced we will achieve our goals.

Thank you Chuck for taking the time to be with us today.