Plenary Luncheon (Day 2): Involving Youth Advocates in Policy Change
Featuring: Dana Mitchell, MPA, CPS; and the Dover Youth2Youth Team
The focus of this workshop or general session is to assist a youth group or their staff in policy change activities – including state and local legislative activities, as well as non-legislative policy change efforts aimed at schools, retailers and other organizations. Presenters will provide instruction and tips for planning and preparing to conduct policy change initiatives, including preparation to deliver testimony to a legislative or deliberative body. In addition to simple examples of policy change initiatives, the workshop will provide a step by step description of the legislative process, as illustrated by student efforts to pass a city ordinance in Dover, NH. Presenters will also provide a detailed description of a non-legislative process – as illustrated by a local effort to influence retailers’ policies on selling marijuana-themed merchandise to teens and pre-teens, and efforts to get them to change their practices/policies.
Dana Mitchell, MPA, CPS
Dana Mitchell has been the coordinator of the nationally recognized Dover Youth to Youth program for the past 25 years; a program that assists other communities and regions in implementing youth empowerment prevention programs. Along with students from his program, he teaches extensively about organizing and engaging youth in advocacy.