​​Objective 2: Strengthen capacity for tobacco control

Achieving health equity in tobacco control requires strengthening capacity to serve California's diverse communities.

TEROC recommends investing greater resources where people do not have equal opportunities to be healthy; developing diverse new leaders; and, building power and influence in marginalized and underserved groups experiencing institutionalized racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other patterns of bias exclusion.

Questions to determine the needs and opportunities for capacity building in tobacco control include:

• Which communities and populations have the highest tobacco prevalence rates? Which are disproportionately affected by tobacco-related disease?

• Which communities are targeted by the tobacco industry? Which struggle with the triangulum of tobacco, cannabis, and e-cigarettes?

• Which communities have the least infrastructure to undertake tobacco control work or have been under-resourced in the past?

• Which communities, underrepresented in tobacco research, have strong youth advocates who can become the next generation of researchers? Which have strong health workforce development alliances that can help advance tobacco control initiatives?

• What new partners can help advance structural equity work in tobacco control?

• What new strength-based assessments within marginalized communities are needed to generate sustained, measurable impacts relevant to tobacco work?