Advocating for a
Healthier California
The California Youth Advocacy Network (CYAN) advocates with and for youth and young adults to create equitable, sustainable change to advance overall community health.
What's New
Statewide Youth Advocacy Conference
july 15 - 18, 2024
Registration for CYAN’s annual Statewide Youth Advocacy Conference is open through June 7, 2024. This is designed for youth who are working on making their communities smoke and commercial tobacco-free, and offers them the opportunity to learn more about advocacy and practice their skills. The event is held at the Happy Valley Conference Center in Santa Cruz County.
CYAN hosted an informational webinar on Thursday, May 9 to provide more information on this opportunity. Conference details and a link to the webinar recording are availabile here.
Statewide Leadership Opportunity for Youth and Young Adult Advocates
Applications for CYAN’s youth and young adult leadership boards are open through June 2, 2024. CYAN’s leadership opportunities aim to enlist a diverse range of youth and young adults statewide with varying skill levels. CYAN’s Youth Board of Directors includes up to 15 high school students from across the state, working closely with CYAN staff on a statewide level. Members collaborate with other youth advocates, educate and engage communities across the state, and facilitate events that empower teens to advocate for a tobacco-free California. The COUGH Leadership Board invites two and four-year college students, graduate students, and young adult community advocates who aren’t in college to apply. The COUGH Leadership Board works closely with CYAN staff to build leadership skills and be part of a statewide movement to make positive change on California college and university campuses.
Leadership Opportunities Info Session - May 14, 2024
CYAN invites youth coordinators, college partners, and community advocates to attend an info session on May 14th at 2:00pm or 6:00pm. We will provide a brief history on our youth and college programs, how young people can get involved, program expectations and incentives.
Smoke and Tobacco-Free Campus Road Map
Researchers from the Public Health Institute - Alcohol Research Group have released a Road Map to 100% Smoke and Tobacco-Free Campuses resource which highlights factors associated with policy development at California Community Colleges. The Road Map captures stories from colleges that have successfully adopted comprehensive smoke and tobacco-free policies. This material also shares recommendations from the study on how community colleges can advance smoke and tobacco-free initiatives. This project, led by Dr. Camillia Lui, was funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program and CYAN. was grateful to participate on the Study Advisory Committee.
New Social Media Resource
CYAN is thrilled to unveil its latest creation, a new factsheet titled "Best Practices for Crafting Social Media Messages to Support Youth and Young Adult Cessation." This concise, one-page resource encapsulates CYAN’s wealth of knowledge in this field.
You can download it HERE.
Supporting engagement and advocacy.
youth
Empowering California’s youth to create tobacco-free environments. CYAN’s Youth Program supports the development of youth-adult partnerships in order to effectively advocate for social norm change in local communities.
college
Through training, education, and support, CYAN is partnering with student and public health advocates to eliminate tobacco and tobacco industry presence on California college and university campuses.
emerging tobacco
Youth and young adults are more likely to use new and emerging tobacco and nicotine products than any other age group population. In order to combat this reality, CYAN provides support and resources to organizations striving to prevent young people from tobacco use.
Resources
CYAN supports tobacco-free prevention and advocacy throughout the California. We provide resources such as program-specific educational materials, tools, and fact sheets as well as web-based trainings to increase knowledge and capacity of tobacco control advocates.
Educational Materials
CYAN’s educational materials are designed for youth and young adults. The goal of these materials is to increase awareness of the realities of new and emerging tobacco products, prevent tobacco use, and encourage quit attempt among young people.
Fact Sheets & tools
A variety of fact sheets, tools, and materials are available for youth, young adult, and tobacco control advocates working to limit tobacco in local communities. The resources range from informational fact sheets to tools to support community engagement and advocacy activities.
online Trainings
CYAN utilizes web-based technology to provide a range of training opportunities for individuals advocating for smoke/tobacco-free policies as well as those promoting quit attempts. Trainings are available for youth advocates, college students and staff, and military health professionals.