Smokefree Parks Gaining Ground with Youth Civic Program

Just a few weeks ago, driven by an effort initiated by the community’s young people, the Braidwood Park District passed an ordinance to restrict the use of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes in their parks. And they were not alone.

 

By the summer of 2016, youth in local groups, most of them funded by the Illinois Department of Public Health’s "Reality Illinois" grant program, in 25 cities and counties across the state had testified before their city councils and 9 of these cities voted to pass smokefree parks and other ordinances presented by youth. The majority of the others were moved for further action and only 4 were voted down.

 

With the help of a new youth civic empowerment program developed at the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign called Engaging Youth for Positive Change (EYPC), young people across the state of Illinois are doing their part to make their communities healthier places. These young people are learning positive, hands-on lessons about civics, government and good health. In addition, their collective influence is becoming realized as they find that making positive change in their community is both possible and real.

 

One young person participating in EYPC said: "People complain about the government all the time, but they don’t do anything. I finally did something so I can say, ‘This is a bad policy, and this is a good one.’ I feel like an active citizen."

According to another young person: "I feel great. To think that we worked so hard on creating the ordinance and meeting with certain people, and trying to get it done. The fact that it all pulled off, it's really satisfaction."

 

And another young person enthusiastically stated: "I was jumping in my chair when I got the news. Something that I worked so hard on actually was approved. It's really important because a lot of times people smoke in parks and there are little kids there."

And according to a local council member observing these youth: "This was a very engaged group of students. It was just fun to work with them. It was cool to see a group of kids take interest in their local government and help improve their community."

Increasingly, good public health means adopting healthy policies where people live, work and play. With a single decision, a change in local policy can improve the health of an entire community.

 

EYPC is a service learning extracurricular program that empowers young people ages 13-18 to work with local governing bodies to adopt policies that create healthier communities. EYPC involves youth directly in this community-based change effort and uses this change opportunity as a teachable moment for youth civic engagement.

 

The EYPC program consists of strategies, lessons, activities, guidelines and many supportive materials for guiding youth through the local policy-change process in their community.

 

Ideal for a short-term (semester or school year length) school extracurricular activity or for established youth groups working in communities, the EYPC Program can also help teachers and their students meet the newly established Service Learning requirement.

For anyone interested in working with a group of young people on a local policy change effort, EYPC begins by training these "facilitators" in program implementation. Our next training opportunity will be in Naperville, Tuesday, December 13 from 9 to 3.

 

Thanks to the generous support of the Illinois Department of Human Services, the training can be offered free of charge and we can offer travel stipends to all participants and reimburse costs for substitute teachers (if needed). Our training offers six professional development hours.

 

For more information and to register, please visit the EYPC website.

 

 

If you have any questions about EYPC or our upcoming facilitator training, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Scott at: 217-244-2616 or sphays@illinois.edu.

 

Dr. Scott P. Hays is a political scientist with a position as research scientist at the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.