European network of quitlines – capacity building and social exclusion programme
Kawaldip Sehmi, Director of Health Inequalities, QUIT, London, UK

Abstract
The European Network of Quitlines (ENQ) was formed in 2000 to maximise collaboration between European countries providing Quitline services and to help develop Quitlines further in other European and former Accession countries. The ENQ first formed with 6 original partners and today the number of ENQ partners has grown to 29 member countries (www.enqonline.org).

ENQ’s Capacity Building and Social Exclusion programme to advance public health in Central and Eastern Europe will help to develop effective strategies to reach and support socially excluded communities who are not accessing mainstream smoking cessation support. These communities may include those on the lowest incomes, different minority ethnic communities, and smokers with diverse disabilities, lone parents and a range of other groups.

The programme will ensure that the participating countries build the capacity to provide a quality accessible intervention to assist socially excluded smokers in these countries and bridge the health inequalities gap. Strategies will be developed to enable each Quitline to reach and help more smokers from socially excluded communities, and to improve the effectiveness of the intervention through higher quit rate outcomes.