About US

Youth Policy Leaders is a Bay Area Community Resources (BACR) program. BACR is a nonprofit organization supporting individual and community development throughout the Bay Area. As part of the BACR network, Youth Policy Leaders (YPL) is a peer-led initiative of community organizers and researchers advocating for social justice, and health equity for all San Franciscans. BACR has served the city of San Francisco since 1996. Originally, YPL was called, the “Sunset Tobacco Education Project,” an initiative focused on reducing tobacco use among the Sunset district’s Russian community. YPL now focuses on engaging youth across the city in health equity-related work in tobacco prevention and other causes.

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For the last seven years, YPL has been funded by the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Free Project CAM Model to engage youth in tobacco prevention advocacy and policy development. Through this partnership, YPL youth leaders have conducted research on affordable smoke-free housing, minimum pack size, and minimum pricing for tobacco products. Our funding comes from the California Department of Public Health under contract #15-10224 and California Proposition 99.