Power to the ʻŌpio! HIPHI Youth Launch Campaign Against Disposable Vapes
By Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 3.25 minutes
On Saturday, November 15, students with the Hawaiʻi Institute for Public Health Institute (HIPHI) Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaiʻi Youth Council gathered at the HIPHI headquarters in downtown Honolulu, for an organizing and legislative advocacy workshop led by the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi.
The Council’s goal for next year: pass a state ban on disposable vape pens, or vapes, that are driving Hawaiʻi’s youth vaping epidemic, and injecting plastic and countless, highly flammable lithium ion batteries into our waste processing facilities, landfills, and environment. With the workshop, Council members and their Youth Council Coordinator, Saya Shibata, hoped to gain insights into legislative advocacy, and how community organizing tools could boost their chances of success.
Workshop leaders Marti Townsend, former chapter director and seasoned organizer, and myself first introduced the youth to Honolulu City Councilmember Matt Weyer, who had generously offered his Saturday morning to talk about legislative processes as a sitting councilmember, and as the Chair of the Committee on Energy, Environment, and Sustainability.
In his presentation, Councilmember Weyer spoke about his experiences introducing and advocating for various city bills that sought to reduce our use of disposable plastic products, such as single-use water bottles. He advised the youth on the varying obstacles that even seemingly common sense bills can encounter in the lawmaking process, given the range of potentially competing interests at play. He also shared past examples of powerful youth-led advocacy actions, such as the Hawaiʻi Youth Climate Coalition’s massive signature scroll, which was unrolled and displayed at a key City Council meeting in support of a disposable plastic utensil ban (which passed at the subsequent Council meeting). Councilmember Weyer closed his talk with an extended question and answer session that reflected the Youth Council members’ growing comfort in engaging with an elected official – as well as their propensity for both strategic and philosophical thinking.
After a short lunch, the group walked to the Hawaiʻi State Capitol, where they were hosted by Senator Jarrett Keohokālole, Chair of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee. Inviting them into his committee hearing room and after a round of introductions, Senator Keohokālole led the Youth Council members through a critical assessment of their proposed legislation. Together, they reflected on opposition arguments that could frustrate their efforts, facts and research questions that could bolster support, and the idea that each legislator is an individual, with unique perspectives, things they care about, and sets of constituents to answer to.
Filled with new insights and strategic considerations, the Youth Council spent the rest of the afternoon brainstorming ideas to counter opposition arguments, and fleshing out the elements of what would become a strategy chart for their campaign, identifying: long-, medium-, and short-term goals; associated key decisionmakers and their influencers; available and needed “resources,” including new recruits; allies to connect with and opponents to consider; and a variety of potential “tactics,” or collective actions that could convince key decisionmakers to make the right decision.
Community organizing and civic engagement are not only the cornerstones of a working democracy, but are the key to solving the myriad environmental and other challenges that burden the lives and future of far too many people in Hawaiʻi today. Accordingly, the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi is deeply grateful for this opportunity to share organizing and advocacy tools with the HIPHI Youth Council – and for the Youth Council itself, as the next generation of advocates ready and willing to advocate, and organize, for a safer, healthier, and more just Hawaiʻi to call home.
Mahalo nui loa to Councilmember Matt Weyer, Senator Jarrett Keohokālole, and their staff for helping to make the HIPHI Youth Council workshop such a transformative success!
Join the Youth Council’s campaign, by signing on to their joint letter to legislators here.
Know any youth interested in learning the art and science of community organizing, or want to support our youth organizing training program? Reach out to us at hawaii.chapter@sierraclub.org for upcoming workshop opportunities or to learn how you can help.