News and Events
A Message from QuitDoc Foundation Co-Founder, Dr. Barry Hummel
May 29, 2026
Earlier this year, the QuitDoc Foundation Board of Directors made the difficult decision not to renew our contracts with the Bureau of Tobacco Free Florida. This means that at the end of June, we will no longer be managing the Community Based Tobacco Prevention grants in six Florida Counties, including Indian River County.
This decision was not made lightly. We have worked on Tobacco Prevention in Indian River County since 2012. Over that time, we have seen an incredible amount of progress. We created and supported the local Tobacco Free Partnership, set up and expanded the local Students Working Against Tobacco chapter, created smoke-free local parks, and changed the social norms around tobacco use, leading to a reduction in youth and adult tobacco use in your county. We also responded to the epidemic of youth vaping and have started to see a reduction in middle and high school vaping since its peak in 2020.
When Dr. Kirk Voelker and I created the QuitDoc Foundation back in 2006, we were hoping to work on youth tobacco prevention issues in some way. The funding that was made available to us through the Florida Department of Health beginning in 2008 allowed us to do this at a level that we could never have expected. By 2012, our small non-profit was working in twelve counties in north and central Florida. However, the grant application for the funding beginning in 2021 held new requirements that made the project more difficult for a small non-profit to manage. We were forced to reduce the number of counties that we could serve and restructure the organization to meet those new requirements.
We have been able to make it work over the last five years, but it has become increasingly difficult for us to continue the project as currently structured. As a result, when we were offered the opportunity to continue for the next five years, we decided to turn down the offer and let a new organization pick up the work.
As I write this, I cannot tell you the name of the organization that will be stepping into that role. There has been a delay in the application process, and it is becoming clear that the project is not likely to continue uninterrupted. As you can imagine, this is an inconvenient situation for our amazing staff who have worked on tobacco prevention in your community.
I do want to share with you that the QuitDoc Foundation is not leaving the fight for a tobacco-free Florida. Some of the difficulties in recent years are due to the lobbying efforts of the tobacco and vaping industry in Tallahassee. As a result, many recent Florida state laws have been written to help the industry over the health and lives of Floridians. Since we will no longer receive state funds from the Florida Department of Health, we will be able to take a more aggressive stance and advocate for legislation that protects the citizens of Florida from the predatory practices of the tobacco industry. Many of the policies we hope to see passed by the Florida Legislature would help to make the work of the local grantees easier in the future.
I want to personally thank you for the support that you have shown us over the years that we have worked in Indian River County. It has been an honor to work alongside of you as we made your community a healthier place. We hope that you will embrace whoever takes our place, because the work must continue until we end the use of these deadly products by your children, friends, and neighbors.
Keep up the good fight! We will see along the way.
