Watertown Youth Coalition Receives Grant to Map Tobacco Shops

WATERTOWN, MA – The Watertown Youth Coalition Peer Leaders have been awarded a $2,000 mini-grant from The 84 Movement to help increase tobacco awareness in the town.

The 84 helps organize young people across Massachusetts to stand against the tobacco industry. The grant is one of 10 awarded this year to youth groups from across the state.

This is not the first time WYC Peer Leaders have received funding from The 84 – previously, grant money was used to support surveys about the pricing and availability of flavored cigars in Watertown, as well as the use of different tobacco products by students at Watertown High School. The survey yielded that of those students who had ever tried a tobacco product, 74.8 percent had first tried an e-cigarette.

More than 63 percent of students said it was "easy" or "somewhat easy" to purchase flavored tobacco products, with many saying it was easy to buy from the store. About 52 percent of students who bought flavored tobacco products over the course of a month purchased them in Watertown.

With the mini-grant, WYC Peer Leaders will raise awareness about the accessibility of these products through a community mapping product, showing the proximity of tobacco retailers to popular teen hangouts.

In a statement, sophomore Shariel Joseph, one of the youth writers on the grant application, said, "helping us provide information to community members about how close tobacco vendors are to the schools and other places where teens spend a lot of time will increase awareness about accessibility and could eventually decrease the amount of teens using tobacco products."

The mapping project is expected to be completed in the spring.

Image via Shutterstock