Staff of the SouthCoast Healthy Housing and Workplace Initiative (SCHHWI) Project invited trainers from The Institute for Health and  Recovery (IHR) in Cambridge to provide a day-long training at the YMCA Southcoast headquarters on June 11, 2014. The Tobacco, Addictions, Policy and Education (TAPE) Project on understanding tobacco/nicotine addiction and its impact on overall health and recovery from other substance use disorders. Project Director Janet Smeltz and Tobacco Education and Treatment Specialist Louise Katz  spent the day with SCHHWI staff members as well as another twenty people involved in cessation or rlated activities. SCHHWI was created in 2012 when members of Voices for a Healthy SouthCoast were granted a $1 million Community Transformation Grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop smoke-free housing and worksites in the South Coast, Click here for a video of the meeting. For more about the program, contact Alice Rebelo at 508-996-9622.

(Top row) TAPE Director Janet Smeltz opens the session with about 25 participants at YMCA Southcoat headquarters in downtown New Bedford. (Middle row) SCHHWI  Health Advisor Nicky D'Abrosca listens as Ms. Smeltz goes over some of the resources available to smokers considering quitting. (Bottom row) Institute for Health and  Recovery Tobacco Education and Treatment Specialist Louise Katz invites participants to discuss their experiences in providing cessation before Ms. Smeltz asks them to share with the group.