June 5, 2009 - The Thunder Bay District Health Unit has received notice that the Youth Action Alliance (YAA) Program will be cancelled effective August 31, 2009. The cuts affect four full-time youth advisors and 35 part-time youth working in communities across the District of Thunder Bay.
The program was launched in 2005 to support youth development, prevent children and youth from starting and becoming addicted to tobacco products, and to advocate for healthy public policy to mitigate the damage done by the tobacco industry. The Ministry of Health has eliminated it from all Health Units due to a change in programming direction.
The Health Unit currently has four YAA programs – two in Thunder Bay, one in Geraldton and one in Marathon. Each program employs a youth advisor and seven to ten peer leaders. The Health Unit’s YAA program has recently been acclaimed by the Ministry of Health Promotion due to its broad community reach and success in developing partnerships that engaged a high proportion of ‘at-risk’ youth.
“A key strength of the program has been the extensive training youth have received in leadership, policy development and advocating for change to promote health,” said Ken Ranta, Manager of Tobacco Control Programs.
“This will be a huge loss to communities across the District of Thunder Bay where our large rural area and smaller communities limit job and training opportunities for youth. The Health Unit continues to promote youth engagement and will work to secure new resources to maintain peer-to-peer health promotion.”
Over the past four years, the YAA groups have had many successes, including the introduction of tobacco-free sports policies with numerous organizations establishing partnerships with community groups, and they have played an important role in the establishment of a Smoke-Free Parks and Beaches bylaw in Thunder Bay.
Northwestern Health Unit’s YAA program has also been cancelled. The organization will lose two full-time and one part-time adult staff, and 16 part-time youth staff in six communities.
The province-wide program cancellation affects over 350 youth and 50 adult staff in 36 public health units. In addition to the YAA program cuts, the annual high school grants program for smoking prevention is also cut in all high schools across the district. For almost half of the high schools in Ontario, this grant was the only tobacco control activity in the schools and considered a valuable resource since it is estimated that 90% of smokers start before the age of 18.
Tobacco industry products remain the number one cause of preventable disease and death in Ontario and cost our health care system at least 1.5 billion dollars annually.
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