About Us

About Stop Smoking Programs

Information about Stop-Smoking-Programs.org: our history, vision, mission and values.

History

I launched this website in January 2012 after spending ten years as editor and webmaster at Quit-Smoking-Stop.com (QSS). During that time I was fortunate enough to learn what really works from H-U-N-D-R-E-D-S of smokers. It left me in no doubt that stop smoking programs help smokers to quit and stay stopped for longer.

This simple insight became a strong conviction. So much so that I decided to rework the QSS website (which was long overdue an overhaul anyway) and replace it with this one.

Vision

As was the case with QSS, Stop-Smoking-Programs.org is a pro quitting resource rather than an anti smoking website. I started out by asking the question: why do people smoke and as a result of my research, I felt that too many many articles, books, brochures and other resources conveyed an unhelpful and condescending tone.

Smokers ARE intelligent human beings and it seems likely to me and others that smokers are likely to become more engaged with smoking cesation information if it is presented in ways that are supportive rather than condescending.

Tobacco use is a disorder which can be remedied through medical attention; therefore, it should be approached by health care providers just as other substance-use disorders are approached: with knowledge, understanding, and persistence.¹

Mission

We publish facts about smoking and information about different ways to quit smoking because many people are interested in them and not because we believe in scare tactics.

Our only hope is that the information we provide will:

• Increase awareness about the harmful effects of smoking.
• Point smokers who want to quit in the right direction.
• Prompt more smokers to at least consider quitting.

Our basic offering is a simple idea but it is also a challenging undertaking but we are committed to developing our website and we believe we can do so by staying abreast of technology and listening to our users.

Embracing the views of our users is particulary important to us as it is they who will help us to develop the best possible resource.

Values

• We appreciate the importance of family and endeavour to maintain a family friendly website.
• We believe that honesty is a sound policy.
• The information and services that we offer are generally free and they are provided in good faith.
• We try to treat others how we would like to be treated.
• Unfortunately, there are deceptive, destructive and rude people in the world. As a result, we have to adopt practices and policies which protect our website, its content and our users. We hope that our users will find that our practices are ethical, reasonable and fair.

Founder

Len Johnson is a fanatical freelance Web developer and part-time lecturer based in the UK.

Since launching the QSS site back in 2002 he has gained a foundation degree in IT and Technical support, a Bachelor of Science degree (First Class Honours) in IT with Management studies and a PGCE (M) PCE teaching qualification from the UniversityWolverhampton.

In his spare time, Len enjoys cycling, flying kites and spending time with his family in the great outdoors.

References

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The health consequences of smoking: nicotine addiction a report of the surgeon general. (1988) Atlanta, GA.

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