The San Francisco Tobacco-Free Project (TFP) is a state-funded program of the San Francisco Department of Public Health that focuses on implementing commercial tobacco prevention activities—including policy development, media advocacy, and cessation services—tailored to San Francisco’s unique context. In 2021, TFP hired Facente Consulting to co-plan and facilitate a community engagement process, dubbed “Communities of Excellence” (CX), that would inform their 2022-2025 work. The CX process convened a wide range of stakeholders, including public health professionals, academics, leaders from community-based organizations, and community members, to discuss local community issues and how they relate to potential commercial tobacco prevention priorities.
Over the course of six months, Facente Consulting collaborated with TFP, co-chairs of the San Francisco Tobacco-Free Coalition, and Bright Research Group to plan and implement four virtual community engagement sessions centered around key areas of commercial tobacco prevention. Facente Consulting facilitated all virtual sessions and designed an interactive prioritization process to help stakeholders identify and discuss the issues they found most important. Priority areas that emerged from the CX process included: youth engagement in commercial tobacco prevention efforts, smoke-free multi-unit housing policies, cessation support services, and policies that set minimum retail prices, package sizes, and volume sizes for commercial tobacco products. These findings gave TFP valuable insights into how to structure their future commercial tobacco prevention work in alignment with community interests and wisdom.