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After many months of preparation, enrollment is now open for Bread’s text-message based smoking cessation program called “Partners in Quitting“.

Through an organization called CareMessage, participants receive six weeks of pre-written smoking cessation text messages to their cell phone, some of which are interactive (multiple choice or T/F) with the goal of educating and motivating people trying to quit and giving them some kind of companionship. They can also receive personalized responses to questions or complaints from our staff member Tim or a volunteer (and they can ALSO get anonymously connected with someone else in the program to text with as a Quit Buddy).

This program is mostly for people who express a readiness to quit, a desire to learn how to quit, have a cell phone, and receive texts. However, we are willing to both teach people how to text and/or help them get a phone through Safelink or a similar service.

Additionally, there will be an in-person meeting every other Thursday at 2:00 PM starting on March 12th in our NW Center. This will be for people in the program or interested in joining, but also for people not interested, who want to talk about their experiences with smoking. While the text messages are not currently offered in Spanish, this meeting is certainly open to Spanish speakers, and if a speaker of another language is interested, we’d like to find a way for them to be able to join in as well.

Lastly, clients who access our SE Center can enroll as well, but it’s best for them to meet Tim in person, for the time being, to get signed up.

Partners in Quitting is open to employees too, of course!

This project was founded by Rachel Schoenbrun, a member of the George Washington University Healing Clinic (a group of GWU health students who do various activities/projects at Bread for the City and elsewhere). This is all thanks to their initiative and continuing hard work!