Project Background

As part of the 2001-2002 Ontario Tobacco Strategy Renewal, the PTCC, in collaboration with the University of Waterloo, began work on a special project to identify and disseminate better practices in tobacco control. The outcome of the project was the development of PTCC’s Better Practices Toolkit in Tobacco Control. Launched in 2003, the Toolkit is an online database of tobacco control interventions deemed to be ‘recommended’ or ‘promising’ by tobacco control experts based on an assessment of program effectiveness and plausibility. The aim was to develop a better practices toolkit with a diverse mix of programs from which practitioners could choose. Thirty-one recommended and promising interventions are available on the Better Practices Toolkit, along with Program Checklists, and Lessons Learned from not recommended programs.

In 2007-08, PTCC in partnership with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU) began the process of reframing the Better Practices Toolkit.

The new Learning through Evidence, Action and Reflection Networks (LEARN) project encompasses not only the development of resources for health intermediaries, but also cultivating knowledge exchange, innovation and a mechanism for identifying desired areas for capacity building. The major activities of the project are:

• Cultivating province-wide Communities of Practice (CoP)
• Documentation of practice (including case studies, lessons learned, etc.)
• Cataloguing useful tools and resources via PTCC’s website
• Development of evidence-based reviews and learning tools