‘Shisha No Thanks’ a winner in 2020 Premier's Multicultural Communications Awards

The Shisha No Thanks project team has taken home a winning prize in the 2020 Premier's Multicultural Communications Awards, in the CommBank Business Campaign of the Year category. The awards are an annual event and recognise excellence in the multicultural media and marketing industry.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Acting Minister for Multiculturalism Geoff Lee announced the winners in an online awards ceremony on Wednesday, 25 November, 2020.

“Congratulations to all our multicultural media outlets who have been recognised in an incredibly competitive field,” Premier Berejiklian said.

“The winners demonstrated the real impacts of COVID-19 on our communities and the invaluable role multicultural media plays in connecting with people who speak languages other than English in our state.”

The Shisha No Thanks campaign addresses tobacco control in one of the few areas of tobacco use, which is increasing in young people. The project initially focused on young people from Arabic-speaking backgrounds but was provided with additional funding for 2020-2021 to expand its focus to young people from broader culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The campaign uses social marketing, community and media engagement to increase community awareness of the harms of water pipe or shisha smoking. It was co-designed with both community members and health professionals to ensure its messaging and strategies are both evidence-based and culturally appropriate.

The campaign is led by the SESLHD Priority Populations Unit and its partners, which include the Health Promotion Service, NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service, Sydney Local Health District, South Western Sydney Local Health District, Western Sydney Local Health District, the Lebanese Muslim Association, Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network and the South Eastern Sydney Research Collaboration Hub, UNSW. Funding for the project is from the Cancer Institute NSW.

The project recently launched new resources in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, detailing information about the harms of shisha smoking and the risk of COVID-19 transmission. For more information visit the Shisha No Thanks website.