Fresh Air for Free

FutureWorkshop: Developing new approaches for tobacco prevention

How can communes be helped to create tobacco- and smoke-free spaces? This was the question at the centre of the FutureWorkshop held in Bern on 28 October 2022 as part of the Tobacco Prevention Fund’s child and youth programme.

On Friday, 28 October 2022, around 20 experts from federal, cantonal and communal authorities and professional organisations gathered in the hall of the Munzinger School in Bern for a FutureWorkshop. The aim of this creative event was to jointly develop new approaches for child and youth tobacco prevention. The key question was: How can communes be helped to create tobacco- and smoke-free spaces for children and adolescents?

Under the enthusiastic leadership of Chris Brügger (Denkmotor) and Michel Geelhaar (French translation), the participants set to work immediately. Ideas were first collected in a “brainwriting” session. With this method, everyone writes down their ideas on a piece of paper, which is then passed on to other group members, who add their own thoughts before passing it on again. In small groups, participants subsequently approached the question from completely different angles, using the “random word analysis” and “visual stimulation” tools.

The FutureWorkshop participants then used sticker dot voting (the so-called dotmocracy method) to make a selection from the pool of ideas. Some of the approaches selected were fairly conventional, such as surveying the groups concerned to find out where smoke is most troublesome and should be eliminated. But more creative and humorous ideas were also explored – the creation of a “Ghostbusters” group to support communes in establishing tobacco- and smoke-free spaces, or the installation of a special lamp whose light can be used to draw attention to tobacco prevention topics and smoke-free spaces.

At the end of the event, participants signed up to the ideas of their choice, so that these could be jointly pursued and the results of the workshop put into practice. Whether this should be done via existing tobacco prevention structures or new projects and campaigns under the Fresh Air for Free (FAFF) initiative will become clear as the details are elaborated.

The FutureWorkshop was very well received by the participants. Free. Fair. Future. may well use this format again to promote contacts among stakeholders and develop ideas in other focus areas of tobacco prevention. First, however, the results and impact of the FutureWorkshop need to be evaluated before deciding on the next steps. Stay tuned for more updates!