Using the Internet to build community capacity for healthy public policy

An interactive Web site and e-mail campaign became the primary focus of a coalition's community mobilization strategy to advocate for changes to the local smoking bylaw in a large Canadian urban center. This article presents the findings of an Internet survey of 2,200 Internet mailing list recipients in which 26% (n=605) submitted responses. Findings from four focus groups of the survey respondents (n=28) are also reported. The survey found that a majority of the mailing list respondents (66.1%) contacted the city council during the campaign. Only 35.8% of respondents had contacted a city council member prior to this campaign. As a result of their participation in the Internet campaign, 50.6% stated that they were more likely to get involved in future civic issues. These findings were confirmed by focus groups that found increased capacity for political involvement on this issue as well as capacity for future social and political action.