'Breathing Space' - Reflecting upon the realities of community partnerships and workers' beliefs about promoting health

The paper will analyse the initial community mapping, the observations of the processes of the engagement phase of the partnership and the health promotion settings of the 'Breathing Space' project. 'Breathing Space' is aiming to promote a non-smoking environment and to produce a significant cultural shift in the local community norms towards non- toleration and non-practice of smoking, in a low income area in Edinburgh. The beliefs of the local workers, revealed their significant ambivalence in considering their potential involvement in smoking action in the community The planning process has recognised that there are 'community representatives' who effectively act as gatekeepers to the wider community. It will be suggested that there is a need for a fundamental revision of our practice of community development and partnership approaches and this can be achieved by holistic planning. Such planning could be supported by a more organic and dynamic approach to health promotion settings, with consideration given to the context of the setting and the interconnections and processes between health promotion settings.