For the month of April, the Wellness Coalition wanted to spotlight the San Benito Youth Association for attending Youth Quest. The youth and tobacco team attended Youth Quest back in March to rally with other youth coalitions across California to take down tobacco. Our Hollister youth participated in presentations and trainings provided by CYAN (California Youth Advocacy Network) and created posters and slogans to use during the march to the capitol.
Our SBYA youth also worked on advocacy and talking to policymakers trainings weeks before to better prepare themselves when talking to our legislators.
The youth had the amazing opportunity to talk to assembly member Rivas’ legislative aide about how tobacco has affected their lives here in San Benito County.
From the SBYA and team:
Thank you to @cyanonline for hosting Youth Quest 2023🙏. It was quite the team building experience for the youth coalition. We had the opportunity to march our way to the State Capital building in Sacramento and recite chants so the tobacco companies can hear our voice! Once we got the building, we were a part of a press conference, which displayed everyone's passion to keep this fight going, to stop tobacco companies from corrupting our youth. After our leaders shared what they had to say, we went inside and had the opportunity to talk to our local legislative leaders. We had our members, Giada and Laila, speak to the representatives of San Benito County and shared how much of a negative impact tobacco use has made in our community.
We are open to having more youth join our coalition. If you'd like more information, contact Javier Perez at jperez@cosb.us or 831-902-9892.
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