Franklin Grand Isle Tobacco Prevention Coalition

The Franklin Grand Isle Tobacco Prevention Coalition is a VT Department of Health grant-funded coalition charged with decreasing the harm from tobacco and vape use in the FGI region.

Our mission is to lead a collaborative, comprehensive effort to inform, support, prevent, and protect the FGI community from the harms of commercial tobacco use and nicotine addiction.

2026 Butt Litter Clean-up

Join us throughout the summer to clean up our parks and downtowns.

Volunteers are always welcome at any cleanup event. If you’d like to host an event, bring a team of volunteers, or help raise awareness in any way, reach out.

Download a printable flyer
Schedule of butt litter clean up for 2026

Collaboration, youth prevention, and adult cessation

The Coalition works with businesses, service agencies, schools, and communities to find unique ways to promote and support cessation. Reach out to the Coalition to find ways to work together to support commercial tobacco and vape users that you work with or employ.

We also focus on protecting youth from ever becoming addicted with education and policies that provide both the facts they need to make decisions that keep them healthy and also protect them from targeted marketing and tactics that prey on their vulnerabilities.

If you work with, employ, or support young people and want to help protect them from the harms of nicotine addiction through vaping and commercial tobacco use, reach out to the Coalition. Together, we’ll explore your unique situation, the needs of the young people and determine which strategies might be most effective.

Tobacco prevention & cessation

Woman speaking to children in a classroom

Care for our community

Cigarette butts are the #1 littered item worldwide.  Discarded butts litter our beautiful communities, find their ways into our important waterways, and are the objects of curious animals and toddlers. Each summer, the FGI TPC celebrates Butt Litter Clean Up Month. Partners and volunteers from throughout the region come together to clean up butts in multiple communities. Butts are counted to document the scope of the problem and then sent off for recycling. In 2022, we picked up over 47,000 butts.

Volunteers are always welcome at any clean up event. If you’d like to host an event, bring a team of volunteers, or help raise awareness in any way, reach out.

Butt litter cleanup

Woman and multiple jars filled with cigarette butts

Support policy change

Sometimes the best prevention and cessation support is a strong, evidence-based policy. The FGI TPC works with local and statewide partners to ensure that Vermont and local municipalities use the tools at their disposal to protect ALL Vermonters from the harms of commercial tobacco use and vaping.

  • Raising prices on products
  • Clean Air + Smoke Free Zone policies
  • Retail policies
  • Flavor restrictions
  • Ensure that the Native American traditions of using tobacco in ceremonial and traditional settings remain sacred and protected.

Policy change

Group of people on the steps in front of the Vermont capitol building

Partnering to serve our community best:

As a staff of 1, the Coalition cannot meet the specific needs of every important group that may be disproportionately impacted by tobacco and vape use. The Coalition partners with organizations who work with specific populations to integrate tobacco and vape information (prevention, cessation, and protection from secondhand smoke) into their existing work.

Partners include:

  • Abenaki Circle of Courage Afterschool Program: Support the protective factors of quality 3rd Space activities while connecting youth to their culture and their community. Explore the important difference between traditional tobacco use and commercial tobacco use.
  • CIDER: Reaching older Vermonters throughout Grand Isle County with cessation information and support (It’s never too late to receive benefits from quitting!)
  • FGI Community Action: Promoting quitting broadly and in one-on-one conversations with low-income residents

Reach out

Learn more about our tobacco prevention & cessation efforts

Resources