Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2007, $1,124,000)
The Best Friends Foundation provides curriculum designed for middle and high school students to promote self-respect through self-control and provides participants with the skills, guidance, and support to choose abstinence from illegal drug and alcohol use, violence, and premarital sex. The Foundation seeks to provide positive peer groups for adolescents and creates an environment that raises aspirations and promotes achievement. The primary goal of the Best Friends Foundation is to help adolescents reject the risk behaviors that lead to crime, violence, academic failure, and underachievement. In order to accurately assess program effectiveness, target areas for improvement, and identify emerging challenges, the Foundation administers an anonymous pre- and post-program participant survey twice each program year'once at the beginning and once at the end of each school year. The linked pre- and post-survey data is collected and tabulated by an independent research firm, Westat, Inc, and analyzed by Nagai Consulting as a benchmark for comparison against national trend studies. The information gathered through the survey and analysis process allows the Foundation to scientifically measure the programs' success in reducing risk behavior by replication site, grade level, school, gender, and ethnicity. CA/NCF