Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. In Hawai‘i alone, smoking claims 1,400 lives each year and creates $526 million in annual healthcare costs.
Since 2000, the Hawai‘i Community Foundation has administered the Hawai‘i Tobacco Prevention and Control Trust Fund under a contract with the Department of Health (DOH). Since its inception, the state has achieved significant declines in smoking rates for both adults and youth. Hawai‘i has the fifth lowest smoking rate in the nation, representing real lives saved as well as public health expenditures avoided.
In partnership with the DOH, HCF implements a statewide comprehensive tobacco prevention and control program consistent with the Center for Disease Control’s best practices. This includes state and community interventions (advocacy efforts and community prevention grant program), health communication interventions, cessation interventions (Hawai‘i Tobacco Quit Line and cessation community grant program), surveillance and evaluation, and administration and management.
HCF leads strategy and implementation of a community cessation and prevention grant program. HCF’s cessation grants program supports community-based cessation programs that assist adults in priority populations (persons with mental health and/or substance abuse challenges, LGBT communities, and low socio-economic status populations) to end tobacco use.
2019-2023 Tobacco Cessation Grantee Cohort
Bay Clinic
Big Island Substance Abuse Council
Community Clinic of Maui: Mālama I Ke Ola
Hāmākua-Kohala Health Center
Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction Center
Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i
I Ola Lāhui
Kapi‘olani Health Foundation
Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services
Lāna‘i Community Health Center
Mālama Pono Health Services
Wai‘anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center
Waikiki Health
Waimānalo Health Center
West Hawai‘i Community Health Center
HCF’s Youth ESD Prevention grants program supports community-based organizations to help prevent the initiation and use of Electronic Smoking Devices (ESDs) by Hawai‘i youth under age 18. The grant program is based on The Stanford Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, comprised of lesson plans to equip youth with skills to reduce experimentation and use of ESDs.
2021 Youth ESD Prevention Grantee Cohort
After-School All-Stars Hawai‘i
American Lung Association
Big Island Substance Abuse Council
Boys & Girls Club of the Big Island
I Ola Lāhui
Boys & Girls Club of Hawai‘i
Boys and Girls Club of Maui
Lānai Community Health Center
Parents and Children Together
The Salvation Army – Family Intervention Services
West Hawai‘i Community Health Center
More information on Hawai‘i’s tobacco prevention and control efforts:
Contribute to the Hawai‘i Tobacco Prevention and Control Trust Fund