STAAND – Gold Country Rural Regional Project

STAAND (Small Town Allies Against Nicotine Dependency) is a tobacco prevention project working in the rural Gold Country region of central-eastern California.  Particularly focused on the counties of: Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Inyo, Mono, Nevada, Stanislaus, Sutter, and Tuolumne; and the cities within these counties.

While California as a whole has lower rates of smoking and tobacco use than the rest of the United States, rural Californian communities have much higher rates with young people typically becoming addicted to tobacco at younger ages, people of all ages using tobacco products more often, and much higher use rates of smokeless tobacco products like chew and nicotine pouches.  All of this leads to higher rates of chronic disease in communities where access to quality health care and quit services can also be challenge.