The general purpose of the Master Agreement is to establish a limited pool of contractors who are qualified to provide survey services to the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control in support of its cancer control surveillance activities. The services to be provided under this contract are designed to permit DCPC to collect and process information needed to measure and evaluate cancer prevention and control activities of NCI and its scientific collaborators. These services are designed to enhance the capabilities of NCI to monitor its progress in public and professional educational efforts to reduce preventable cancers and avoidable deaths due to cancer. The general purpose of the task order (MAO#3) is to obtain contractor support to implement surveys of worksites, schools as worksites and religious organizations in 11 communities. The communities are drawn from the 11 pairs of experimental and control communities selected as part of NCI's Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT) in October 1986. Within each pair, one community has been randomly assigned to active community intervention while the comparison community is receiving minimal or no intervention. This particular task order is designed to measure the current state of information, attitudes and behavior related to the program and its end-points in community organizations. The basic strategy of the COMMIT program is to reach heavy smokers through community channels, including workplaces, schools, and churches, because a much larger proportion of the smoking population can be reached through these channels, compared to clinic based programs. In addition, the adoption of program based goals by the community organizations -- particularly those that control work, educational, religious and recreational settings outside of the home -- provides direct social incentives and constraints on smoking outside of the home. Furthermore, the persons who are responsible for businesses, school, and religious organizations in the community tend to act as the opinion leaders of the community. Their attitudes, as well as their practices, establish the general community atmosphere in which individual attitudes and behavior related to smoking and smoking cessation are shaped.
