By: Contessa Hussong

The newly-formed Tobacco Free Coalition is offering more than pamphlets here in Blackford County — they are offering hope and a chance for a community in need to make a change.

Hosted within the Blackford Junior-Senior High School (BJSHS), the Tobacco Free Coalition was approved for grant funding on July 1, 2023 and has hit the ground running since its launch. Over the past seven months, the organization has connected with the Second Harvest Food Bank, Indiana University Health and members of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program through their coalition meetings.

“We’ve done quite a bit, honestly for a short amount of time,” said Grace Christman, the tobacco prevention and cessation coordinator with Tobacco Free Blackford County.“It’s been a lot of fun. Those are my favorite parts of the job, getting you to the community work.”

For Christman, the work is personal as well as professional. 

While watching a loved one deal with drug and substance abuse, Christman began digging to find out what often preceded such behavior. 

“I realized, well, this started somewhere — like, it started from her trauma, of course, but also . . . what was her first substance abuse?” Christman said. “So much of the chronic illness that I see, and we see in this community, in this country, stems from tobacco use or secondhand smoke.”

It’s a serious issue in Blackford County especially. Christman reported that, as of December 2023, 28.5% of adults in Blackford smoke. The Indiana average is only 17%. Looking at smaller populations, Christman noted 26% of pregnant women in Blackford smoke, compared to the state average of 9.8%.

It’s why the coalition doesn’t just focus on students at their homebase in the high school. 

“Anytime a student is struggling or a family is struggling, we always want to present the information,” said Karen Mealy, Assistant Principal of BJSHS and President of the Tobacco Free Coalition. “We give them information, and then let them choose whether or not they can utilize that resource.”

At present, Mealy noted the biggest struggle the coalition has is simply building trust.

From a high school level, students worry about being caught by school administration and any implications that could place on their sport or extracurricular activities. 

Along with random drug testing taking place weekly at the high school, the simple measure of trust-building seems to already be a healthy deterrent for students. Despite testing more frequently (BJSHS now tests five students a week as opposed to the previous three students per week), Mealy reported seeing fewer positives crop up.

The struggle to build trust in the community isn’t so different for adults, either.

“A lot of people hear tobacco [and] they’re like, ‘I don’t want to get in trouble for that,’ or, ‘I don’t want them to judge me,’ and that is my personal mission — to share those resources without being stigmatizing or scaring people off,” Christman said.

The coalition isn’t meant to be a ‘gotcha’ moment for community members. Instead, Tobacco Free Blackford promotes a variety of free resources that Blackford residents can choose from to help meet their needs. 

Christman particularly noted the Indiana Quitline (1.800.784.8669) and nicotine replacement therapy that’s offered without charge to anyone who signs up and is considered eligible. Additionally, the coalition hosted an online training for organizations seeking to integrate Quit Now Indiana.

Finally, looking toward the future, both Christman and Mealy expressed excitement toward the next phase of the coalition. 

“Our five year plan is to really get more individual programs going,” Mealy said.

Their Not on Tobacco (N-O-T) Youth Vaping Cessation Group is just starting up, and takes place at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Hartford City Public Library. Any teens between the ages of 12 and 18, who could use support to quit vaping, are encouraged to attend.

A primary focus of this and other programs will be mental health, with the Tobacco Free Coalition hoping to offer individual or group therapy for those who need it, as well as a hotline for those who are seeking support in their journey out of addiction.

For the assistant principal, however, one of the most encouraging things about the program is not just the fact that it’s showing results already. It’s that Christman, and others who grew up in Blackford County, are reaching out to better their community. 

They are seeing the change and meeting it head on, and that passion is the driving force behind the program.

“I’m really, really excited as a young person in this role to just build it up, get it started, and get it going,” Christman said. “We obviously need it. And this is just step one.”

The Tobacco Free Coalition can be found online at https://www.tobaccofreeblackfordcounty.org/ or on their Facebook page. Immediate support for those seeking to break nicotine addiction can be found through the coalition website, or through https://www.quitnowindiana.com/.