Variety is the Spice of Life: Diversity,Youth Advocacy, and You

Audience: Community health educators, coordinators, and others seeking to implement outreach and policy at local levels who wish to build capacity to better collaborate with youth advocates.

Key Points: Many of the focuses of tobacco control affect youth populations--from reducing secondhand smoke exposure in popular outdoor areas like parks and beaches, to responding to emerging tobacco products, to addressing advertising exposure and access at point-of-sale venues. Youth involvement in local policy and outreach efforts is critical to influence decision-makers, to reach populations of their peers, and prevent initiation of the next generation of tobacco-users during the most at-risk time in their lives. This comprehensive study of the current youth-collaborative prevention efforts will help determine the future direction of tobacco issues and the integral role youth will have.

Educational Experience: This session will focus on the diversity of California youth populations and youth advocacy efforts and present findings of strategies involving youth in tobacco prevention issues across the state. By examining local youth activities with public health departments, prevention coalitions, schools, and other local agencies across 56 counties, this session will compare methods, resources, and innovations that are successful with rural youth, urban youth, and other priority youth populations.

Benefits: Using evidence from current youth-engaged activities in California, attendees will:

Understand the importance of youth engagement in all stages of local policy campaigns;

Discover how youth tobacco advocacy efforts work in diverse communities across California;

Apply these models and activities to increase their capacity to work with youth in tobacco control to local communities everywhere.