Lab 01 · Youth Substance Use

USEF Valley Youth Substance Abuse Lab (VYSA)

Protecting a generation of Central Valley young people from tobacco, nicotine and other substance use, in their own language and in their own communities.

Our mission

This lab exists to keep young people in our communities away from tobacco, nicotine and other addictive substances, and to stand beside the ones already caught by them.

Prevention designed elsewhere and delivered in English does not reach the young people we serve. So we work with families, schools and community leaders to build prevention and recovery support that actually fits the households it is meant for, and to make these young people visible in the research that shapes national policy.

It is a young lab, established in 2026 alongside the Center, and it is growing quickly.

The researchers behind this lab

Academic partners

The investigators, clinicians and institutions we do this work with.

LH
Lisa Henriksen, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine (Research) · Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine
BH
Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD
Founder and Director, Stanford REACH Lab · Division of Adolescent Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine

Stanford Prevention Research Center

A world-renowned research center within Stanford Medicine and a pioneer in interdisciplinary prevention science, with decades of expertise spanning tobacco and smoking prevention, behavioral health, and population health. The center is a key academic collaborator on our study examining tobacco and nicotine use among Central Valley youth from households where English is not the primary language.

Halpern-Felsher REACH Lab, Stanford Medicine

Research and Education to Empower Adolescents and Young Adults to Choose Health. One of the country’s leading adolescent substance use research groups, and our partner in designing research with the young people we serve.

The coalition this lab works withValley Youth Substance Abuse Coalition (VYSAC)Our community coalition on youth substance use. Twelve sectors of the Central Valley at one table, from schools and clinics to employers, parents and young people themselves.See the coalition →

What we are working on

Understanding substance use in our communities

Learning directly from young people and their parents what tobacco, vaping and other substance use look like inside our communities, in the languages families actually speak at home, rather than inferring it from research designed for someone else.

Prevention built with the community

Working with families, schools and community leaders to shape prevention that fits the households it is meant for, and that a young person will actually listen to.

Helping young people stop, in their own language

Bringing quitting and recovery support to young people and their caregivers in the language spoken at home, so that help is something a whole family can take part in.

Making our young people visible in the evidence

Our communities are largely absent from state and national health data. This lab works to change that, so the research that shapes policy actually describes the young people we serve.

Get in touch

Funders

If protecting young people from tobacco, nicotine and other substance use is something you fund, we would be glad to show you what this lab is building and who it reaches.

Academic partners

We welcome investigators and clinicians in tobacco control, addiction medicine and adolescent health who want to work with communities that research rarely reaches.

Student researchers

Join this lab and take on real research alongside our team. No prior research experience is required.

Apply to join this lab
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