Philip Morris USA’s support for positive youth development focuses on organizations and programs that emphasize kids’ strengths, promote positive behaviors, connect youth with caring adults, and enhance community-based resources for kids.
These programs are designed to help kids develop the confidence and skills they need to avoid risky behaviors, such as tobacco use. PM USA also supports adolescent tobacco cessation programs.
Between 1999 and 2010, PM USA provided grants in excess of $280 million to support school and community-based programs, making the company one of the leading funders of positive youth development in the United States. PM USA’s funding supports organizations that:
- provide evidence-based programs for kids like mentoring, life skills education and substance abuse prevention curricula;
- help national youth-serving organizations reach more kids, improve program quality, and better measure their impact;
- help community leaders align youth programs and policies; and
- conduct research on effective positive youth development programs.
In 2010, PM USA, together with U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. and John Middleton Co., provided a combined $22.3 million in grants to leading youth development organizations. Examples of our 2010 contributions include:
- The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence which continues to oversee and assess the implementation of LifeSkills® Training throughout the Southeastern U.S. LifeSkills® Training is a school-based, substance abuse and risky behavior prevention program found to reduce underage smoking by up to 87 percent. Over 100,000 middle school youth are projected to receive this program during the 2010/2011 school year.
- National 4-H Council is delivering its Health Rocks! Program to a projected 54,000 middle school-aged youth in the Southeastern U.S. in 2011. Health Rocks! is designed to teach youth key health messages and give them the skills they need to make healthy lifestyle choices and to avoid tobacco use and other risky behaviors.
- The Ready by 21® Partnership, led by the Forum for Youth Investment, which helps community leaders improve the odds that all children and youth will be ready for college, work and life. As of March 2011, our multi-year grant had enabled the Partnership to reach nearly 130,000 state and community leaders with information and tools to help them define goals for youth outcomes, assess and align resources, create partnerships/collaborations and collect data. Approximately 60 communities and states are currently implementing Ready by 21® strategies locally.
