Louisiana's tobacco statistics are startling. The state ranks number two as the largest percentage of African-American smokers. Nearly 24 percent of Louisiana adults smoke and a quarter of high school students in Louisiana are smokers. The Communities of Color Network South serves as the infrastructure for building capacity, coordinating, organizing, and implementing tobacco prevention and control programs and activities in the region.

A program of the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center, the Communities of Color Network South is an affiliated program of the Louisiana Public Health Institute, The Louisiana Campaign For Tobacco-Free Living.

The Communities of Color Network South works to:

• reduce tobacco-related morbidity and mortality among Louisiana's communities of color, including African-American and Hispanic communities in
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• Regions 1 and 3 - St. Mary, St. Charles, St. John, St. James and Orleans parishes
• Regions 2 and 9 - East Feliciana, West Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, St. Helena, Tangipahoa and Washington parishes
• Regions 4 and 5 - Calcasieu, Iberia, Evangeline, St. Landry, and St. Martin parishes
• enhance the awareness of the dangers of tobacco
• reduce tobacco use, consumption, and secondhand smoke exposures among Louisiana's communities of color ; and
• eliminate health disparities caused by or related to tobacco use in Louisiana's communities of color.

• initiates or strengthen tobacco-free policies affecting Louisiana's communities of color
• increases knowledge of and community response to significant negative health impact of tobacco on Louisiana 's communities of color and tobacco industry's targeting of Louisiana's communities of color; and
• develops culturally competent messaging, programs, and strategies for Louisiana tobacco prevention and control