Philippe Boucher's Rendez-vous with . . . Vanessa Rodriguez and Tracey Levy
Rendez-vous with . . . Vanessa Rodriguez and Tracey Levy
Teenage Power Alliance/Easthampton of the YWCA of Western Massachusetts
About their quilt project in remembrance of tobacco victims Easthampton, Massachusetts, USA
tlevy@the-spa.com
By Philippe Boucher
Rendez-vous 125
Tuesday, January 15 2002
PB : Thank you Vanessa and Tracey for accepting our rendez-vous.
May I ask you to introduce yourselves?
Vanessa Rodriguez: Hi, my name is Vanessa A. Rodriguez. I am a fifteen year old that works in the Teenage Power Alliance/Easthampton of the YWCA of Western MA. I am an ex-smoker who had tried to help other people try to quit. I had things to say and didn't know how or who to say them to until I found this group. I've been working here for almost a year.
Tracey Levy: Hi, my name is Tracey Levy and I am the coordinator of the Teenage Power Alliance of the YWCA of Western MA. I grew up in the early 70's when chain smoking was the norm in parts of my family. I remember long car rides with open windows that never really helped and many attempts at stealing cigarettes to stop my parents from smoking. (They quit in the mid-70's.) However, getting involved in the tobacco control movement was secondary to my desire to work with teenagers and to help them organize around causes that have meaning for them. The Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program (MTCP) innovatively structured their initiatives to include youth leadership. Funding from the MTCP supports the Teenage Power Alliance which I've been coordinating since 1995. It's main objectives are to work to support a smoke-free generation and to encourage young people to get involved with and speak out about issues they care about. It's been a wonderful experience.
The Teenage Power Alliance of the YWCA of Western Massachusetts is a youth leadership project that is the home of three programs:
- The Teenage Power Alliance of Easthampton is over 7 years old and consists of 6-9 young people ages 14-18 and the coordinator. They have helped several communities in Hampshire County develop and enforce tobacco regulations (by initiating them - i.e. Smokefree Playgrounds, speaking up at hearings and going on compliance checks), educated hundreds of elementary and middle school students on tobacco related issues, organized dozens of visible tobacco control related actions including "Honk if You Don't Smoke" and video d radio programs and distributed information to help people quit smoking. They are currently working on the Tobacco Memorial Quilt project. In addition to organizing tobacco control related actions the young people in the program learn leadership skills, facilitate discussions about things that concern them, and work with adults in the community to affect change.
- The Teenage Power Alliance of Amherst is nearly one year old and consists of 6-8 young people ages 14-18 and the coordinator. Their goals and mission is similar to the program in Easthampton. They have worked closely with the Board of Health in Amherst on enforcing tobacco regulations and worked to initiate a SmokeFree Playgrounds policy in the town. They are currently interviewing people who are suffering from the affects of tobacco related illnesses and hope to compile the interviews into an educational program for younger youth.
- You Go Girl is a middle school girls group facilitated by two Teenage Power Alliance leaders and an adult coordinator. The focus of the group is for the girls to learn to trust and listen to their opinions and to practice sharing them in a public arena. All of these programs are funded by the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program which, since 1994, has worked to make smoking history in Massachusetts.
Q1. When/ how did you come up with the idea of a quilt in remembrance of tobacco victims?
Vanessa Rodriguez : We came up with the idea in the Summer of 2001. We realized that a lot of people's deaths from tobacco related illnesses were going unnoticed. One of the girls in the group didn't want her mother's death (her illness was made worse by her smoking and eventually killed her) to go unnoticed. Nobody makes a big deal of the 450,000 deaths a day in the United States. Neither do the people or companies that kill them.
Q2. Why the YWCA? How is the project organized? What has been the reaction to your initiative? What is you timeline?
Vanessa Rodriguez: The YWCA is the parent organization of the Teenage Power Alliance. They administer the grant and support our project. We have quilt squares that people can get here at our office. We have forms and information that we give out to people who are interested. We send them to anyone who wants to participate. We get information out about this project through the press releases that we wrote, the community newsletters that we were in, and the presentations that we are doing at community and church groups. We also gave some to the schools to reach students. Everybody thinks that it is a really good idea. We will be collecting quilt squares indefinitely. But we will start sewing them together in April and hopefully have our first showing in May for World No Tobacco Day.
Q3. Is the project restricted to girls or can boys be included?
Vanessa Rodriguez: Of course boys can do this! We would love for boys to participate as much as they want.
Q4. Do you think other groups will pick up this idea and start their own quilts?
Vanessa Rodriguez: To be honest I'm not quite sure if other people will do their own. But they are welcome to contribute to our quilt if they would like.
Q5. Would you consider showing the quilt on line?
Vanessa Rodriguez: Yes, we would definitely consider showing it online but it would take a while to get the technology to do this.
Q6. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Vanessa Rodriguez: We are looking forward to seeing more quilt squares. The ones we have received are beautiful. People who would like to participate (we can send information and the squares if needed) should call us at 413-529-0956 or email us at tlevy@the-spa.com
PB: Thank you both, Vanessa and Tracey for taking the time to be with us today.
Rendez-vous is supported by a contract from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
This document's URL is: http://www.tobacco.org/News/rendezvous/rodriguezlevy.html
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