AMERICA ON TRACK

America On Track continued to implement 2 Tobacco Prevention Project grants from the County of Orange Health Care Agency that serve the Newport Mesa Unified School District and Brea Olinda Unified School District catchment areas from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2025. In both target areas, services to be provided at schools and youth-serving organizations within the district boundaries include: 1) creating an inventory of youth-serving organizations in the selected district boundaries; 2) conducting relationship-building activities with adult representatives from schools and youth-serving organizations; 3) providing youth recruitment presentations; 4) recruiting, training and educating youth to help them identify smoking and vaping prevention activities; 5) collaborating with youth who are recruited to engage them in the smoking and vaping prevention activities that they identify; 6) creating and maintaining an educational smoking and vaping prevention social media campaign to increase awareness and positive youth development among youth; and 7) conducting educational activities for parents to raise their awareness about the harms of smoking and vaping and to provide prevention resources to support them in talking to their children about not vaping.

Since 2010, America On Track has been implementing three consecutive 5-year grants from the California Tobacco Control Project (CTCP), California Department of Public Health to reduce secondhand smoke exposure in Orange County, with an additional "Empowering Local Communities to End the Tobacco Epidemic" grant being awarded as of May 2023. The goals of our On Track for a Tobacco-Free Orange County and our On Track to End the Tobacco Epidemic projects are to address social determinants of health and to reduce health disparities that are prevalent in communities with high Latino and Asian populations and high percentages of low socioeconomic status and limited-education individuals. We will accomplish our goals by engaging in activities to facilitate the adoption and implementation of: Smoke-Free City policies in Santa Ana, Buena Park, and Stanton; Voluntary Smoke-Free MUH policies throughout Orange County; and policies eliminating the sale and distribution of menthol and other flavored tobacco products in the cities of Buena Park, Stanton, and Fullerton. America On Track has successfully accomplished the goal of eliminating the sale and distribution of menthol and other flavored tobacco products as well as the goal of getting a Smoke-Free City policy adopted in the City of Buena Park. Buena Park adopted a Tobacco Retail License and Flavor Ban ordinance in 2021, and then in 2022 they adopted a Comprehensive Smoke-Free City and Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Residence ordinance that protects residents from unwanted secondhand smoke exposure.