SHIP stories
The community in which a person lives has a
huge effect on the healthy choices available.

Since July 2009, SHIP has supported
approximately 24,000 apartments go
smoke-free.
To get things started, Wellshare, a non-profit
organization dedicated to improving health, conducted
Can an entire town go smoke-free? On January 1,
a door-to-door survey of residents, mostly East African
2013, a town-like housing development did exactly
immigrants. They also created a video for the
that, clearing the air for approximately 4,440
property’s in-house cable show explaining the dangers
individuals. Riverside Plaza is now the largest housing of secondhand smoke and the upcoming policy change.
complex in Minnesota to provide a smoke-free
Meetings were held with residents and staff to explain
environment.
the policy and hear concerns as well. As a result of
gathering feedback and further educating the
Calling Riverside Plaza a “town” is no exaggeration. It
residents, 82 percent supported the new policy
has a K-8 charter school, grocery store, and resource
change.
center with social services, such as a computer lab and
job training. The Statewide Health Improvement
Building managers Sherman & Associates are now
Program (SHIP) partnered with Wellshare International interested in expanding smoke-free air to their four
and the Associate for Nonsmokers (ANSR) to help pass other properties in Northeast Minneapolis. Wellshare,
the smoke-free building policy.
the health department, ANSR and Sherman &
The Town that Went Smoke-Free
Associates are working together to show how SHIP
“This policy is going to support and make Riverside
partnerships can create benefits for all.
Plaza housing complex a better environment to live in,”
says Abdulkadir Warsame, executive director of
For the residents at Riverside, says Warsame, “This will
Riverside Plaza Tenant Association. “It will help the
go a long way to help in their health.”
neediest or those vulnerable within the community –
***
such as small children and the elderly – to breathe air
free from tobacco.”
7/2013
The Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) works to
improve health through better nutrition, increased physical
activity and decreased commercial tobacco use and exposure.
Find out more at www.health.state.mn.us/ship