YLI staff and young people worked with community partners to mobilize support for a citywide fee on alcohol over the spring and summer of 2010. YLI staff and San Francisco Community Action Live (SFCAL) youth developed key messages, created an educational video targeted at youth and prevention providers, and carried out a youth-lobby day at city Hall.
Our staff and advocates trained and supported more than 40 youth and youth program staff to meet with supervisors and legislative aides to educate them on the merits of the alcohol fee and the importance of the legislation. We also trained and prepared more than twelve youth and adult advocates to speak at the Small Business Commission hearing and Budget Committee hearings on this fee and successfully mobilized youth and organizational representation for the full board vote.
The fee legislation passed 7-3, but was vetoed by Mayor Newsom. Since 2010, YLI has continued to receive funding by the DPH’s Community Behavioral Health Services to lead a citywide coalition to undertake a campaign that will identify and implement a policy solution that addresses alcohol access and norms. YLI provides training and technical assistance to the prevention coalition and individual providers from different agencies in SF including the following: Asian Youth Prevention Services, The DJ Project, Horizons, Filipino Community Center, Community Youth Center, Boys and Girls Clubs, Japanese Community Youth Council, Asian American Recovery Services, Inc., and the Vietnamese Youth Development Center. Prevention providers receive training, technical assistance, and weekly curriculum to help support their individual neighborhood campaigns using environmental prevention strategies. In addition to supporting neighborhood campaigns, YLI’s VP of Programs and Director of Programs support the prevention coalition through the Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA), a nationally recognized evidence based model program that uses community-organizing strategies to reduce youth access to alcohol by changing community policies and practices. Over thirty individuals – youth and adults representing nine organizations have committed to participating in the citywide coalition.