COSTA MESA : Grant to Fund Youth Anti-Smoking Plan

A local youth-employment agency has been awarded $150,000 from the state Department of Health Services to begin a program to discourage young people from smoking.

The nonprofit agency will use the state grant, paid for through cigarette taxes, to counsel young people not to smoke as a way of improving their “total employability,” said Lynne Graham, executive director of Youth Employment Services.

The smoking cessation and prevention program planned by Youth Employment Services of the Harbor Area, which currently helps people ages 14 to 22 find jobs, will also encourage local businesses to become smoke-free workplaces.

Teen-agers and young adults are considered high-risk age groups when it comes to smoking, Graham said. She said 1987 statistics showed that 30% of youths in the 20- to 24-year-old age group were regular smokers.

The anti-smoking program will not only try to discourage nonsmokers from picking up the habit but will also provide special counseling to encourage smokers to quit, Graham said.

“Everything has to be done together to make this work,” she said. “More and more schools and businesses are eliminating tobacco use from their workplaces.”