Y Street Activists Promote New Policy Change

We’re excited to celebrate a recent policy win by Y Street, the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth’s award-winning volunteer initiative for high school students that is managed by Rescue’s Youth Engagement and Policy team.

These youth activists galvanized school and community support to spur collective action around Rev Your Bev, an obesity prevention campaign aimed at increasing access to and promoting the consumption of water in schools. As a result of their efforts, the Richmond City Public School Board voted to update its School Wellness Policy, becoming the first division in Virginia to adopt the campaign's model policy!

During shutdowns and school closures, the Y Street team harnessed digital media to collect 2,277 support cards and online surveys for the Rev Your Bev policy change. Youth were also invited to participate in the Virginia School Board Association Conference and Virginia Oral Health Summit, which generated earned media attention from CBS19, NBC29 News, and Charlottesville City.

A capstone of the year, youth participated in the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth's annual Rev Your Bev Day and the American Water Works Association's Drinking Water Week, which achieved a combined 2,032,729 impressions, 242,998 exploratory engagements, and 461 active engagements.

You can read more about Y Street’s successes in tobacco prevention and control that earned them recognition in the CDC Best Practices User Guide. If you’d like to learn more about our strategic framework to promote policy changes, please visit our website or contact us with your questions.