Whether you are fighting for change in your school, community or online, we are here to help and provide you with some examples and tips for creating change.
We believe that action starts with education.
Remember to always apply tobacco industry denormalization (TID) strategies. Messages should always shift blame away from the user and back on to the industry.
It is important that you really know and understand the issue.
Learn about what rules or laws are already in place. This will help you decide what it is you want or need to change.
Learn about everyone involved in the issue.
Educate others. Get the word out. Spread awareness about the issue, the impacts, what they can do, and what will happen if nothing changes.
The goal of mobilizing is to influence others to take action and create change.
Show others all the good things about being involved.
Come up with creative ways to get people’s attention. Think about who you are targeting with your message and the best way to connect with them.
Decide what it is you want changed. Have a set goal and a clear message. People will take you more seriously and will be more likely to join in.
Great advocacy is a way of not only making people aware about your issue, but to make them care enough about it, so that they will follow in the action! Check out the UNICEF Youth Advocacy Toolkit that guides you though a plan to develop an advocacy campaign.
A call to action is what you want people to do. It is what is going to help create change. Your call to action can be as simple as sending them to your groups’ Instagram to follow you and learn more information or to spread awareness by liking and sharing your content. The call to action is super important! You need people to do something after you have taught them about the issue. This is what is going to show decision makers that others really care about the issue and that something needs to be done to change it. It will also make your message engaging and memorable, affecting people’s behavior and attitude towards the issue.
Some common advocacy methods
All systems are a go! Time to take action!
Here are some tips and examples of ways that you can create change in your schools, community, and online around the issue of tobacco use and vaping. These are just some examples that we have come up with to guide and inspire you! Be creative, research what other groups have done and are doing to create change!
Join your school’s Health Action Team (HAT) to help students learn more about health and well-being, and advocate for positive changes in your school. Work with your HAT to take action to reduce youth tobacco use and vaping – your School Public Health Nurse can help!
Some ideas you could add to your HAT’s action plan could be:
Check out our Unfiltered Facts campaigns for more ideas and tools for action in your school.
Find out if there are other groups in your community that are fighting for the same or similar causes and
support each other.
The number one way to stick it to the industry is to never start or take steps to quit using their products.
Hamilton’s leading youth health advocacy group. Using creative engagement strategies to provide peers with the unfiltered facts about health issues that affect them.