Youth Wellness Coalition

The YWC finds its origins in the “I am a student, too!” campaign which was an advocacy campaign spearheaded by Santa Barbara FLAMA youth in 2016. Our “I am a student, too!” campaign worked to address noise, drug, and alcohol issues in Isla Vista (IV) which were identified after students surveyed the Isla Vista community. FLA students worked to reduce the amount of noise, drugs and alcohol use that currently exist in IV by executing a well-attended town hall meeting and later a block party.

One of the main causes of the negative effects of party culture in IV, is that college students aren’t aware that these issues which affect the children, high school students, and working class families living in IV as well. We want to be able to say, “I’m a student, too!”.

Students from elementary up to high school take the biggest impact. There’s been events like Deltopia that have led to riots and there’s also been multiple shootings in IV. This is not the environment we want our future generations to grow up in.

From a very young age, they are exposed to the party culture that exists in IV which influences their learning and educational success in general. Through surveying the community in IV we found that this project would be a huge benefit in which students and families who will be informed to be prepared to not be affected by these issues .