Tobacco Free Youth Recreation Program (TFYR)

The Tobacco Free Youth Recreation study

(TFYR) is a community based participatory research project funded by ClearWay Minnesota. The Principal Investigator on this project is Jean Forsterat the University of Minnesota.

The University partnered with the Tobacco Free Youth Recreation (TFYR) Program and the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association (MRPA) to conduct an observational study to determine current policies pertaining to tobacco use on Minnesota park and recreation grounds, and to assess park staff, local policymaker, and citizen support for restricting tobacco use in outdoor park and recreation areas.

Mission

TFYR is a project funded by a grant from the MN Department of Health (MDH) to the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota (ANSR-MN).

TFYR promotes adoption of tobacco free-park and recreation policies throughout the state. The purpose of this research project was to learn about the ease or difficuly of passing tobacco-free policies.

TFYR Study Staff

Jean Forster, PhD, MPH is the Principal Investigator for the TFYR study. Jean has been involved in all aspects of the project including survey and sampling design, data analysis, and presenting findings at state and national conferences. She has numerous publications on public health policy as a prevention study and adolescent tobacco use. Jean teaches courses in public health policy and legislative advocacy skills for public health.

Liz Klein, MPH, is the Project Coordinator for the TFYR study. Liz has been involved in data analysis and presentation of study findings. She has years of experience working in population-based research, from field data collection up to project management. Liz is currently a doctoral student in the behavioral epidemiology program at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health.

Brittany McFadden directs the statewide Tobacco-Free Youth Recreation (TFYR) program in Minnesota. Since 2001, Brittany has worked in partnership with local advocates from all over Minnesota, assisting in development of tobacco-free park and recreation policy advocacy strategies. To date, over 70 Minnesota cities have adopted tobacco-free park and recreation policies. To promote the idea of tobacco-free parks, Brittany has given trainings at the national, state, and local level, including city council and park board meetings and youth advocacy trainings.

Background & Research Methods

The statewide TFYR has two primary goals: 1) to increase the number of tobacco-free park and recreational areas in Minnesota, and 2) to promote the tobacco-free sports message to youth through material development and partnerships with Minnesota ‘s professional and collegiate sports teams.

TFYR served as a catalyst for this research project. As policies were being contemplated throughout Minnesota, local policymakers posed questions such as: “Does the public support tobacco-free park and recreation areas?” and “What have other Minnesota communities experienced after implementing tobacco-free park policies?” TFYR sought the assistance of the University of Minnesota to design a study that would answer these types of questions.

Survey of Park and Recreation Staff and Board Members

We conducted 452 telephone interviews with park and recreation staff and board members to learn more about the experiences of individuals who had been involved in passing tobacco-free park and recreation policies.

• Focused on MN park and recreation areas located in communities > 2,200 in population.
• Two individuals were recruited from each community for a phone survey: a park and recreation director and a board member.
• In communities without a park and recreation department or board, an alternate was identified who had involvement in park policy issues.

Survey of Minnesota Residents on Tobacco-Free Park Policy

In addition to the telephone survey of park and recreation staff and board members, we mailed 2,200 surveys to a random sample of Minnesota residents with a drivers license aged 22 and older to learn what their views are on tobacco-free park and recreation policies.