If you’re reading this in between your marathon of writing FERs and BERs: Keep it up!  You got this! 

If you’re reading this after you’ve come up for air from sending off all the reports: Congrats!  You deserve a breather from this whirlwind of a contract!

After you’ve recharged from report writing and closing out the year, I’m sure you and your projects will turn towards everything coming up next year and the start of a new contract and the End Commercial Tobacco Campaign activities.  Well not to worry!  TCEC is preparing lots of trainings and resources to assist LLAs throughout the whole process.  Check the TCEC website for any updates and other upcoming events.  Here’s what we’ve got waiting on the other side:

To start, each LLA will be assigned a TCEC Lead Contact so that you can receive individualized support throughout the whole process.  We’re here to support data collection, analysis, reporting, and use of the key informant interview, observation, and public opinion survey for the campaign.  Be on the lookout for your assigned TCEC Lead Contact on Jan. 5th.

Two weeks later, TCEC will host a live webinar on the Policy Record Review (PRR) Jan. 19th at 11 AM.  While the PRR is not unique to the End Commercial Tobacco Campaign, it is a required activity for all LLAs and should be done early in the scope of work.  We’ll cover the three components of a PRR and the appropriate timing of when to do them.

Two weeks after that, the required Key Informant Interview (KII) protocols will be released on Feb. 2nd.  These are the KII that will need to be conducted with policymakers in the primary jurisdiction.  The End Commercial Tobacco Campaign requires we use new and different strategies than we have used in previous tobacco work.  That means the tools we use may also need to look a little different than the ones we have all done in the past.  The questions are purposely written about tobacco issues and not specific policies so that one may gain insight on how a policymaker may vote on an issue without asking them directly.  This enables us to build new partnerships and forge a game plan that will help us reach our objectives.  Keep an eye out for the new tool in the new year! 

In another two weeks, the observation protocols will be released.  That includes the store observations, multi-unit housing (MUH) observations, and outdoor secondhand smoke (OSHS) observations.  Depending on your objective, you’ll need one or more of these for each of your data collectors.  A lot of it should be familiar from Healthy Stores for a Healthy Community (HSHC) or other previous MUH and OSHS observations you’ve done in the past.  This time, it will be done as a statewide effort, so there are a few new requirements that we’ll share when the resources are released Feb. 16th.  You can plan for a similar timeline to HSHC, where you receive the training in February, begin data collection in March, and everyone should wrap up data collection by June. 

And, you guessed it, another two weeks later we’ll hold a live Q/A session so you can ask all your questions about everything that is being released.  Now, you don’t have to wait till Mar. 2nd to get help; your TCEC Lead Contact will support you throughout the process.  It can help to learn from other people’s questions as well, so this provides an opportunity to do that.  Please take a look at the materials that will be released, then bring your questions to this live Q/A session.

Lastly, remember to reach out to our fellow End Commercial Tobacco Campaign Training & Technical Assistance Providers.  These partners provide guidance on policy, community organizing and engagement, communication and messaging, strategic planning, and so much more.  We at TCEC are your go-to for all things evaluation, and we can’t wait to jump into this with you all.  See you in 2022!