Like many young kids, Alberto Valenzuela wondered about his place in the world. Would he be a successful student? Could he be a leader someday? How could he stay on the straight and narrow?
In the noise of adolescence, would a soft-spoken kid like him ever be heard?
Yes, it turned out. Valenzuela would be heard over and over again.
At his middle school, talking with a friend who wanted to stop drinking alcohol. At his high school, organizing activities aimed at keeping teens off drugs. At Tempe City Hall, giving his opinions on serious issues affecting his peers.
And at the Tempe Coalition, the lone teen among a group of civic-minded adults working to reduce alcohol and drug use among the city’s youth.
“In the past, I never felt that I had a voice,” said Valenzuela, 17, a junior at McClintock High School. “I felt like I was just someone in the crowd.”
“Now, I feel like I can make a difference for my peers,” he said.
Youth advocates
For the past five years, the Tempe Coalition has been the perfect platform for Valenzuela to do just that.
Formed in 1987, the grassroots coalition is focused on helping youth reach their full potential by reducing alcohol and drug use within the city.
In recent years, the coalition has focused on a campaign to reduce underage drinking, an effort to reduce marijuana use by youth, and passage of the city’s Social Host Ordinance, which makes it illegal to provide alcohol to a person younger than 21.
A recent $625,000 federal grant will fund continuing efforts to reduce alcohol and marijuana use, said coalition program director Hilary Cummings. The coalition specifically wants to change attitudes by youth that smoking marijuana is not harmful.
Teen leader
Over the decades, the Tempe Coalition has established itself as a change agent and a community resource. It has also become an unlikely home for Valenzuela.
Valenzuela’s path to advocacy began with an anti-drug program at Connolly Middle School and took him to various teen leadership programs offered through the city. His mother and aunt encouraged him along the way, after seeing family members who had struggled with drugs and alcohol.
“They didn’t want me to end up with those problems,” Valenzuela said.
Then, a chance invitation to a Tempe Coalition meeting cemented his love of advocacy work. Intimidated at first by the all-adult group, he and another teen decided to keep coming back.
“We were thinking, ‘Our voice matters just as much as theirs’,” Valenzuela said.
Now the only teen member, Valenzuela continues to use his voice to help further the coalition’s work.
Starts with you
At the start of the school year, Valenzuela started a new club at McClintock High called “It Starts With You,” which encourages teens to avoid drugs and alcohol and take another path.
This month (FEB), Valenzuela and other members of the club visited Mill Avenue restaurants to distribute window clings promoting the Tempe Coalition’s 21 or Too Young campaign. Led by the coalition, the effort helped reinforce restaurant owners’ commitment to serving alcohol to patrons 21 and older. Partners included the Arizona Restaurant Association, the non-profit organization notMYkid, the Tempe Union High School District, and the Tempe Police Department.
It Starts With You provides a key link for teens at McClintock High.
“We know that students turn to other students when it comes to making many decisions during their high school years,” said McClintock teacher and club sponsor Jane Winkle. “This club helps connect students and provides an environment where kids can support each other to make healthy decisions.”
Valenzuela has big plans for his future – a career in law and then politics. But for now, he is focused on helping his peers make plans for their own futures.
“I want to be all that I can be,” he said. “I want to help others. Even if it’s just one person, I’m good with that.”
For more information about Tempe Coalition, visit https://tempecoalition.org.
