Margaret Libby, MSW and Maureen Sedonaen. Youth Leadership Institute, 246 First Street Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94105, 4158369160, mlibby@yli.org

The Marin Youth Health Advisory Council (YHAC), concerned about the issues of access to and use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD) by their peers, created and administered a survey of Marin high school students in the spring of 2003 to in order better understand the issues and to develop data-driven recommendations about how to address the ATOD issues in Marin County. Rather than focusing on what substances youth use and how often, YHAC approached their survey project from an environmental prevention perspective and focused on two key research questions: (1) ATOD Messages: What kinds of messages do young people see and hear about ATOD and where do those messages come from? (2) ATOD Access: How are young people able to access these substances, despite existing laws? Their goal was to collect data that would provide the community with information about how to address the ATOD issues and to make recommendations to key decision-makers.

The youth development framework that the YHAC survey was developed in, allowed the youth researchers an active voice in determining both the content of the survey, the administration logistics, and the presentation of the results to local community members and policy-makers.

Learning Objectives:

• At the end of the session, participants will be able to recognize the unique set of environmental factors that influence access ATOD for young people in Marin County
• Participants will be able to assess how the data was used to create recomendations for key decison-makers in Marin County were made and the degree to which the recommendations have been implemented
• Participants will be able to understand how a youth development framework can be coupled with environmental prevention strategies to address youth ATOD issues.

Keywords: Youth Access,

Presenting author's disclosure statement: