Center Youth Advocate Against Tobacco Marketing
Center Youth Visit State Lawmakers in Albany
Center Youth Organizing (YO!) interns joined 50 other advocates in late January; they embarked on a bus trip to Albany with a mission of educating state legislators about the importance of tobacco prevention programs.
This yearly event is coordinated by the New York City Smoke Free Coalition and includes young voices from throughout New York City who meet with a host of state assembly members and senators to inform them about the need to keep robust funding for tobacco prevention programs and explain why the initiatives are so important.
The coalition’s local efforts have helped contribute to a significant reduction in New York City smoking rates; NYC has the lowest smoking rates in the nation. Unfortunately tobacco companies continue to bombard young people with advertising at local convenience stores near their schools.
Center Youth Visit Lawmakers in Albany
Center youth speak out regularly about this alarming trend at community board meetings and other forums and push for measures that would limit these manipulative and harmful campaigns which have resulted in alarming statistics: 59 percent of self-identified LGBT teenagers in NYC report using tobacco, compared to 35 percent of self-identified straight teens. State legislators were very receptive to the youth tobacco prevention message and agreed to make this a priority when looking at overall state funding.
Center Youth Visit Lawmakers in Albany
Brian Smith, the Center’s Youth Services Community Organizing Specialist said trips like this one show young people that their educational efforts truly matter:
“It’s great to see the young people take all that they’ve learned inside the walls of the Center and put it into practice in the world. They realize, ‘I can make a difference and my voice does count,’” Smith said.