The Arizona Daily Star

Published: 03.13.2008

Student advocates peer-based approach
> tucson youth participate in d.c. anti-drug forum <
By Jamar Younger
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
More info
The Youth Website Advisory Committee will hold a meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on March 25 at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave..
The committee is open to Pima County teens and young adults, ages 12-25. For more information, go online to www.befreepima.com or call 205-4780.
An Orange Grove Middle School eighth-grader joined more than 2,600 advocates in Washington, D.C., last month to learn the most effective strategies for preventing alcohol and substance abuse.
Amanda Monroy, 14, and four other Tucson-area youths attended the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America's 18th Annual National Leadership Forum.
The youths also visited Capitol Hill and talked with representatives of U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raúl Grijalva, letting them know about their efforts to prevent alcohol and drug abuse in Pima County.
Monroy and the other youths stayed in Washington Feb. 10-14.
The forum featured more than 100 workshops focusing on strategies to reduce marijuana use among young people, information on alcohol-abuse prevention and other related topics.
Monroy and two of the other young people, Alex Rios and Hailey Parish, represented the Youth Website Advisory Committee.
Rios, 12, attends seventh grade at Valencia Middle School and Parish, 15, is a freshman at Mountain View High School.
The committee operates a Web site overseen by the Community Prevention Coalition in cooperation with the Pima County–Tucson Commission on Addiction Prevention & Treatment and Compass Behavioral Healthcare.
The two other teenagers, Tucson High Magnet School seniors Joseph Bass, 17, and Marisela Mariscal, 18, serve that commission
The teens use information on the Web site BeFreePima.com to reduce alcohol and drug use among their peers, said Amy Bass, program coordinator for the Community Prevention Coalition at Compass Behavioral Healthcare.
"The Web site is youth-developed and youth-driven. It promotes peer-to-peer, positive influence among youth," Bass said.
The coalition created the advisory committee last summer and the committee launched the Web site in January, she said.
Monroy joined the committee last fall, after her mother, Martha Monroy, told her about the group, Amanda said.
"I thought it was a pretty cool idea. I like how they were bringing youth into prevention," she said.
Amanda Monroy wants to take the information she learned at the forum and share it with people through the Web site and in the community, she said.
She learned a variety of strategies at the forum, ranging from communication methods to leadership skills, she said.
"If you start with friends in school, it will spread," she said. "The Web site is trying to find youth from other schools to spread out to."
Some of the workshops examined reasons why children expose themselves to drugs and alcohol, as well as the consequences of drug abuse, she said.
"Sometimes kids use drugs to enhance performance," she said. "Drugs can lead to you not going to school or getting a job. Drinking can lead to you killing someone" through drunken driving.
Monroy also learned how to approach different age groups, she said.
"We learned not every youth thinks the same. You need to think, 'What makes sense to the age group you're speaking to,'" she said.
It's important to have an advisory committee made up of young people because they can understand the needs of other youth better than adults, she said.
Orange Grove Principal Phil Woodall agrees.
"She can be a voice. This is a great example that kids can get involved in their communities," Woodall said.
Woodall described Monroy as a quiet honor-roll student and a great communicator.
"She's a prime example of kids doing the right thing and making a difference," he said.
Woodall expects Monroy to make an impact at the school and in the Foothills area, he said.
"Usually the Foothills area is insular unto itself. It helps our community deal with the real issues," he said. "No matter where you are, young people are faced with issues of drug use."
More info
The Youth Website Advisory Committee will hold a meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on March 25 at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave..
The committee is open to Pima County teens and young adults, ages 12-25. For more information, go online to www.befreepima.com or call 205-4780.
● Contact reporter Jamar Younger at 434-4076 or jyounger @azstarnet.com.

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