Catawba County Tobacco-Free Initiative

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

When the North Carolina Community Transformation Grant Project was launched in Catawba County’s 10-county region, Catawba County Public Health, located in Hickory, N.C., volunteered to serve as the lead county for the grant’s tobacco free living strategies. This included working with county municipalities to encourage tobacco-free government campus policies (buildings, grounds and parks) in 2013. A team of county employees facilitated a collaborative effort among leaders of local municipalities to jointly initiate tobacco-free government campus policies in cities and towns throughout the county. As a result, Catawba County and six municipalities – Brookford, Catawba, Claremont, Conover, Newton, and Hickory (Parks & Recreation) – adopted tobacco-free campus policies or ordinances within the span of one year, creating healthier government facilities and parks for the combined 146,140 residents they serve.