Welcome to the Promising Practices Conference 2012

Good Morning from the Break Free Alliance Conference in New Orleans LA. Promising Practices to Eliminate Tobacco Related Disparities | The Power of Communities. This conference offers a forum to network with colleagues doing similar work in tobacco control that focuses on low SES and other disparate communities as well as community partners who may just be starting to learn about addressing tobacco in the populations they serve. With over 350+ people from across the country this conference proves to be one of the best conferences to address the tobacco epidemic plaguing our communities.

This Morning I am moderating a panel discussion called Promising e-Practices and Message Mapping as Tools for Communities. We have two amazing presenters:

Kacy Rodriguez, MA

Kacy Rodriguez is Program Administrator at the Health Education Council and Regional Manager for the Network for a Healthy California Children’s Power Play! Campaign – Gold Country Region.

J. Carlos Velázquez, MA

Carlos Velázquez is the Vice President of Community Engagement with HMA Associates, a multicultural health communications firm in Washington DC. He has been in the health communications and policy field for 20 years in which time he has served in a variety roles with national organizations working with Latino and multicultural constituents.

The Session was designed to discuss how tobacco and junk food companies are using social media to recruit new generations of consumers.  CDC has created an amazing Toolkit : The Health Communicator’s Social Media Toolkit which is a great resource to look at.

Check out three main points shared by Kacy:

Also, I wanted to share one video shared by Kacy:

Make sure you stay tuned to the blog as we have some great blogs that will be shared from the conference!