CRAVE invites Halton youth to take ACTION

As part of Youth ACTION Week, November 23-29, 2008, CRAVE is encouraging young people across the Region to take action to break the connection between tobacco industry products and sport and recreation. This year’s theme of tobacco-free sports and recreation is a part of an international movement for tobacco-free sports. Youth will be challenging everyone to play, live, be…tobacco-free.

As part of the lead-up to Youth ACTION week, CRAVE joined the Halton Council on Smoking or Health at a launch of a Tobacco-Free Sport and Recreation (TFSR) Guide at a community event held at the Oakville YMCA earlier this month. The guide is a document that includes resources to enable community and recreation organizations to adopt and implement tobacco-free sport and recreation policies.

Representatives from the Halton Council on Smoking or Health, CRAVE, the Halton Region Health Department, Halton youth and local athletic organizations attended the launch.

“Sport and recreation organizations play a key role in the health and wellness of Halton Region,” said Gary Carr, Halton Regional Chair. “Tobacco-free policies can further strengthen the positive impact such organizations have on a community’s health and provide an important message about being tobacco-free to individuals.”

The TFSR guide has two goals:

• To encourage community sports and recreation organizations to adopt tobacco-free policies;
• To provide information and resources that will help make tobacco-free policies and programs easy and successful.

Creating tobacco-free sport and recreation events means that athletes, coaches and spectators refrain from using any form of tobacco product while participating in the activity.

In addition to launching the guide, the event also served as an opportunity to deliver a workshop to youth in Halton who will continue to promote Tobacco-Free Sport and Recreation.

Speakers at the event included Terry Geddes, the former mayor of Collingwood, who spoke about the process of passing a bylaw at the municipal level (Collingwood passed its first smoke-free bylaw in 2000); John Atkinson, Ontario Lung Association, Wendy Myers, marathon runner and representatives from the Halton Region Health Department, Heart and Stroke Foundation and CRAVE.

“This event was very informative,” said Lorrée Allen, a CRAVE peer leader who attended the launch and workshop. “I look forward to taking the guide back to schools and community groups in the Region. This is an important initiative because there really is no level of safe commercial tobacco exposure. I encourage Halton youth to make the week of November 23-29, 2008, the week we take ACTION to break the connection between tobacco and sport and recreation. Across Ontario, young people are taking ACTION. You can too.”

CRAVE (or the Halton Youth Action Alliance) is a group of high-school aged youth in Halton employed by the Halton Region Health Department. Funded through the Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy, the CRAVE team educates youth about the truth of the Tobacco Industry and its marketing tactics. ACTION stands for Advocates Challenging the Tobacco Industry in Ontario Now and is also supported by Smoke-Free Ontario.

To learn more about CRAVE, call Halton Region at 905-825-6000, toll free 1-866-4HALTON (1-866-442-5866), TTY 905-827-9833, or visit www.cravethetruth.ca. For more information on the province-wide TFSR initiative, visit www.playlivebetobaccofree.ca

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