(Greenfield) – After a nationwide call for applications, 2 high school students from Hancock County were chosen to serve as Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Youth Ambassadors – Lauren Silcox, an incoming Junior at Greenfield-Central High School, and Annie Twyford, an incoming Senior from New Palestine High School. These dedicated youth advocates were chosen for demonstrating their readiness to level up their advocacy and leadership skills and help to create the first tobacco-free generation through their work with Indiana’s VOICE statewide youth empowerment brand, whose initiative is to engage, educate, and empower teens to celebrate a tobacco-free lifestyle.
These Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Youth Ambassadors will be on the front lines elevating the youth voice in local, state, and national efforts to pass policies protecting kids from tobacco and e-cigarettes. Ambassadors are trained in the core components of advocacy and will build their capacity for effective leadership with unique opportunities in the areas of leadership and public speaking, media engagement, and influencing decision makers by serving on this team of national youth advocates.
Lauren, Annie, and dozens of other high school students from all 4 Hancock County high schools are active in Indiana’s VOICE movement, which is sponsored and supported locally by the Hancock County Tobacco Free Coalition and their local schools. Brandee Bastin, the Coalition’s Coordinator, also serves as the Hancock County VOICE Youth Coordinator and shared, “I am so honored and excited to see two of our local VOICE youth advocates chosen to serve on the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Youth Ambassadors team. To see our local youth serving at the national level on this leadership team will have such a positive impact on the local and statewide level too. As their adult mentor for this program, I cannot wait to see what they do!”
For more information on the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids organization, visit www.tobaccofreekids.org and for more information on Indiana’s VOICE youth empowerment brand, visit www.voiceindiana.org. Follow the Hancock County Tobacco Free Coalition on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and Hancock County VOICE on Instagram at @hancock.voice