Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2005, $250,000)
The Best Friends Foundation is the national headquarters for replication sites that deliver the Foundation's field-tested curricula. The 'flagship' program in Washington, D.C. is fully funded and operated by the Foundation and currently serves 1500 Best Friends and Best Men students and 190 Diamond Girls and Best Men High School Leadership students. Best Friends, the oldest of the four programs, began serving 6th grade girls in the D.C. public schools 18 years ago, and their close friendships and positive support helped them reject the adolescent trappings of popular culture'premarital sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence. As a result, area school officials watched the program grow and noted its success in reducing'and often times preventing'risk behavior. The Foundation responded by establishing Best Men, which, for five years, has provided a peer group with status to nearly 500 area boys.NCA/NCF