Cancer Council ACT has been awarded a total of $889,372 in grant funding from the ACT Government to facilitate three programs that will help people in the ACT region give up vaping.
The programs, which have received funding through the ACT Government’s Healthy Canberra Grants program, will cover sporting clubs, schools and community organisations, utilising a scientifically backed brief intervention training model which will equip key stakeholders to have important conversations.
Cancer Council ACT CEO Verity Hawkins joined representatives from Basketball ACT at their new courts on Tuesday 7 May for the announcement made by Emma Davidson MLA, Minister for Population Health.
Ms Hawkins commended the ACT Government for taking a proactive approach to address the issue of vaping in Canberra.
“This funding represents a huge step forward in our collective efforts to combat the harmful effects of vaping among young people in the ACT, and will allow us to better support those in our community who are seeking to quit,”
“We know that 1 in 7 Australians aged 14 – 17 years of age currently vape, and we know that young people who try vaping are three times as likely to take up smoking,”
“We also know that young people are seeking help to quit, and that’s what we’re here to provide.”
The three grants that have been awarded to Cancer Council ACT are:
- $442,992 for the Vape-Free Sports program, to work with ACT sporting organisations to provide education, training and support for e-cigarette prevention, quitting and intervention;
- $264,988 for the School Communities Supporting Students in Vaping Cessation program, to increase access to vaping prevention messaging and quitting pathways in school or college settings; and
- $181,392 for the Quitting together: Vaping cessation in ACT community services program, to increase vaping intervention skills in the community service workforce and improve quitting pathways for individuals aged 12 and above accessing ACT community services.
Cancer Council ACT will work with local organisations to commence programming in late 2024.
A total of six projects were funded, with other grants being awarded to the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, and the Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Association ACT.
The grants support the goals of the second action plan for the Healthy Canberra: ACT Preventive Health Plan 2020-2025 – which focuses on five priority preventive health areas: supporting children and families; enabling active living; increasing healthy eating; reducing risky behaviours; and promoting healthy ageing.
