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The youth will lead educational advocacy efforts, provide direction to Wisconsin’s youth tobacco prevention program
Today, the FACT Movement announced that Olivia Smith and Danielle Foster, members of the Wisconsin African American Tobacco Prevention Network FACT group, and Nia Kamara a member of the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention and Poverty Network FACT, were selected to serve as a member of the State Youth Board of Directors for Wisconsin’s youth tobacco prevention program. The high school students and tobacco prevention advocates were selected because of their remarkable leadership skills and commitment to spread the truth about tobacco.
Founded in 2001, FACT is a youth-driven movement where teens in grades 7 – 12 work together to conduct school and community based advocacy initiatives that educate teens about the dangers of tobacco. Since its inception, FACT members have helped lower youth smoking rates by supporting proven policies like higher tobacco taxes and smokefree air laws. The Milwaukee area youth are among a group of 22 teens from throughout Wisconsin who will serve a one year term where they will provide overall leadership, guidance and feedback to FACT.
“FACT is important to me because my Grandma died from second-hand smoke and I have the strength to make it not happen to me,” said Foster. “Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body. As a youth board member for FACT, I want to reduce that number, which will help save lives,” Foster added.
About FACT:
FACT is part of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Tobacco Prevention and Control Program and is managed by the American Lung Association. It was developed out of a statewide concern about teen tobacco use and has educated hundreds of thousands of youth over the last 16 years. For more about FACT, visit FACTmovement.org.
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