We used a co-design approach for the first stage of the project. This means children and young people shaped the direction of the project. They told us about their smoking and vaping behaviours and attitudes. We talked to people in the following ways:

The work in Stage 1 helped us identify three key action areas to reduce harm from vaping and smoking:

1. Community education
2. Increased information and awareness
3. Regulation of existing laws

We held a competition to get young people to develop peer to peer messaging at the end of 2023. We received 76 entries talking about the harmful effects of smoking and vaping. The content created will be used for a series of social media campaigns.

Project partners from the stakeholder reference group developed a workplan with actions to:

• Improve community knowledge about vaping and smoking
• Increase community members’ awareness of the impacts of vaping and smoking
• Communicate responsibilities when vaping and smoking and supports available to quit
• Increase community awareness of health support services
• Reduce exposure to smoking, vaping and passive intake with public space bans

The City received funding through VicHealth. It allowed us to undertake a project to engage with young people on a range of issues on smoking and vaping.