As part of the voting process for the Youth Cabinet “Big Vote 2007” elections at the end of last year, thousands of young people across the county identified the issues they thought ought to be a priority for the Cabinet to address; smoking was one of them.
The smoking campaign will centre around a DVD that members of the Youth Cabinet will produce working with a film-maker. It will be aimed at 11–16-year-olds and will be sent out to schools.
James Davies from the Youth Cabinet said: “We hope this DVD will help educate young people about the effects of smoking and will give them loads of information about where they can go for support, information and help if they want to quit. We know from the elections that this is a key issue that young people want addressing so that’s why we decided to do this.”
Cllr Meg Stroude, the county council’s Lead Member for Children and Families, said: “The Youth Cabinet has become a very important and valuable voice for young people in the county, and they have done so much to raise awareness of issues facing young people. I am delighted that they have decided to tackle this issue which obviously is an extremely important one.
“I hope, through this campaign, that more of our young people will become aware of the very real dangers of smoking and that we will see more young people using support services.”
The ten minute DVD which will form the backbone of the campaign will focus on the physical and social effects of smoking, the financial cost, advice and information about giving up, and where to go for support.
It will be used in conjunction with a questionnaire which will ask young people for their views on existing support services and what could be done to improve them.
Notes to editors
Big Vote 2007 – During two weeks in November voting took place at 45 different voting stations in schools, colleges, and youth projects across East Sussex. Nominations for the Cabinet, which is a key voice for all young people in the county, closed in October and a total of 25 young people contested the seats. Of 33,418 young people on the electorate from the schools taking part, the vote turnout was almost 50% - the second highest in the country based on last year’s figures.
The Youth Cabinet members represent young people on issues such as transport, drugs, the environment, sexual health, bullying and exams. Three members of it also represent the county at a national level in the Youth Parliament. The Cabinet meets once a month and representatives have also made important contributions to meetings at county hall, including the Children’s Trust and the 11–19 Strategy Partnership group and with partners including the health service and the police.
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