Introduction:
Tobacco epidemic has identified as a major public health issue in Sri Lanka. It causes nearly 20000 mortalities annually in the country. While government and other relevant parties take number of actions to address the issue, this study involved security forces as they have been recognized as key persons with a well-built reputation in the nation by citizens

Objectives:
To train and enable security forces personnel as change agents to address tobacco epidemic in local communities

Methods:
Sample was selected purposively and comprised with 550 security forces personnel in North and North Central provinces in Sri Lanka. A series of training programs were conducted with them with the technical support of Rajarata University. Participants were initially educated about the real harm of tobacco usage, myths and conceptions related to tobacco usage and strategies used by tobacco industry to promote tobacco usage. Then several training sessions were conducted to develop their skills and continuous feed backs were given to build them as change agents to take actions in empowering and mobilizing local communities, school children as well as people in working environments towards tobacco control. Video clips of success stories on tobacco control and evidenced based activities which were conducted by different communities were used as supportive materials. Follow up was conducted for three months after the program via telephone conversations and needed data were gathered by written reports once in three months

Results:
27% of participants have took effective actions to empower local communities to address the real harm of tobacco usage, identify and address industrial strategies to promote tobacco usage among youth and school children and address myths and conceptions related to tobacco usage

Conclusion(s):
Security forces personnel as a recognized party in the nation can be used as change agents to control tobacco epidemic by empowering and mobilizing local communities in Sri Lanka