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Idaho Teen Advocates Wrap Up a Successful Year
Final reports are in, and youth group recipients of the first-ever Support Teens Against Nicotine Dependency (STAND) grants have compiled an impressive list of achievements. From working with a popular ski resort to designate smoke-free areas to producing award-winning public service announcements, these groups exemplify what is possible when the energy and creativity of youth are aligned with their commitment to an important cause.
This year’s grant recipient achievements include:
Camas County High School students in Fairfield educated their community and enlisted support for improved tobacco policies with presentations, interactive demonstrations, an art contest, and a free community taco dinner. They then successfully negotiated with the management of Soldier Mountain Ski Area to designate smoke-free areas on the mountain for the 2010-2011 season, with part of their grant funds going to pay for the signage.
Meridian Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council wrote and produced a series of Public Service Announcements underscoring Big Tobacco’s deceptive practices. One of the spots won first place in the Mayor’s anti-drug video contest: two of the videos are posted on the city website at www.meridiancity.org/stand.
The group also conducted an email campaign with local legislators, offering them the link to the videos and raising awareness of the threats that tobacco poses. These teens are following up by producing ALA/STAND-identified flash drives which contain their PSA’s and resource information for other cities that are interested in creating a mayor’s youth advisory council.
The Idaho Distance Education Academy in Post Falls held a Kick Butts Day event that that offered tobacco prevention education, the opportunity to pledge to be tobacco free, and free hot dogs and sodas. One powerful demonstration made use of body bags and caution tape to illustrate the fact that 5 to 6 people die in Idaho every day as a result of tobacco use. This group is also using some of its funds to produce no-smoking table signs at this year’s Kootenai County Fair.
Other groups undertook a broad range of projects, from advocating that their school drug testing policy for athletics include tobacco, to staging rallies and events in the center of town and garnering local media attention.
ALA in Idaho has secured funding through a grant from the Idaho State Millennium Fund to continue this program in Fiscal Year 2010, with the goal of increasing the number of grants awarded from seven to ten.
