Krista Timm, Behavioral Health Program Specialist and lead for the Regional Youth Cannabis and Commercial Tobacco Prevention Program for the Walla Walla County Department of Health, makes an enormous difference for youth in our community.
Timm works in nine counties of the greater Columbia Region of Southeastern Washington including Walla Walla County. She coordinates policy, systems, and environmental changes in the region to prevent tobacco, nicotine, and cannabis use. She advocates for smoke-free parks and works with healthcare providers to learn more about cannabis use amongst our youth. She also conducts educational media campaigns and provides lock boxes for adults who use cannabis or tobacco products to keep them away from children, pets, and visitors. She says, “We’d love for you to stop, but if you’re going to use, please lock it up.”
Currently Timm is working on coordinating the Southeastern Regional Youth Summit where 350 kids will: learn resiliency skills using art, participate in a ropes course to improve communication skills, tour Columbia Basin Community College, and take classes about coping with stress and leadership. She also gives presentations to students, adults, and local agencies like our school districts and Whitman College.
Timm has served as a Blue Zones Project Tobacco Policy Committee co-chair with Lucinda Richards from Trilogy Recovery Community and Emily Brown from BZP. Together they worked on educational pieces, talked to the Community Health Advisory Board, and both Walla Walla and College Place City Councils. They delivered educational programs at Walla Walla High School and gave a presentation at the Washington State Public Health Association Conference.
“We’ve done a lot of environmental changes in the schools and parks to include the term ‘vaping’ on our no smoking signage. Our Tobacco Policy committee wanted to add signage in tobacco-free spaces throughout the community to emphasize they are tobacco and vape-free. It was important to include ‘vape-free’ in the updated messaging because much existing signage was outdated and did not include this wording. Additionally, many tobacco/vape-free spaces did not have signage,” said Timm.
The partnerships between local agencies have been extremely helpful to Timm’s work. “I have such gratitude for the partnerships with BZP and Trilogy they have made my time and money go way further and Walla Walla County is healthier because of the work we did. I think our decision makers are more informed on some of the things we are working on. With vaping coming into the picture, we’re able to link vaping to tobacco because they are both nicotine products. The community is now more aware they are both bad for you.”
Partnerships between BZP, Walla Walla County Department of Community Health, our prevention coalitions, Valley Transit, the cities of Walla Walla and College Place, the school districts, and local businesses to add signage reminding people of tobacco/vape-free spaces have been successful. The primary goal was to reduce second-hand smoke exposure. A secondary goal was to promote positive community norms by reminding people that healthy, public spaces are tobacco-free and to reduce the number of adults that are smoking or vaping in public spaces.
Overall, 784 signs have been added or updated including: dual language decals in all Valley Transit bus stops and signs in all buses, signs along the exterior of school grounds, decals at drive-through windows of coffee shops and restaurants, signs in parks, and decals and posters in school buildings.
