Reclaiming Futures (RF) is an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that seeks to improve outcomes for drug-involved youth in the juvenile justice system. The first phase of Reclaiming Futures (2002–07) was a ten-site demonstration effort that relied on organizational change and system reform to improve substance abuse interventions for youthful offenders. As part of a national evaluation of Reclaiming Futures, the Urban Institute and Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago conducted biannual surveys in each community participating in the initiative. The surveys measured the quality of juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment systems as reported by expert informants in each community. The pattern of their responses over six survey administrations (December 2003 to June 2006) suggests that RF is a promising strategy for improving substance abuse interventions for youth. Positive and significant changes were reported in all ten RF communities. In several communities, most quality indicators measured by the evaluation improved significantly during the course of the RF initiative.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is fighting to free America's youth from tobacco and to create a healthier environment. The Campaign is one of the nation's largest non-governmental initiatives ever launched to protect children from tobacco addiction and exposure to secondhand smoke.
Our primary goals are to:
--Alter the public's acceptance of tobacco by deglamorizing tobacco use and countering tobacco industry marketing to youth and other practices.
A Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study finds links between environmental tobacco smoke -- even at extremely low levels -- and reading, math, logic and reasoning declines in children and teens. The study, which appears in the January 2005 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, finds a nearly three-point decline in a standardized reading test and a nearly two-point decline in a standardized math test, given an average score of 100 and a modest increase in exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
According to this January 2003 National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, exposure to secondhand smoke has decreased for children and adolescents, but kids ages 3-11 are still exposed to levels more than twice those of adults.
The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign offers step-by-step instructions on how communities and youth can plan, budget, develop and paint an anti-drug wall mural, promoting anti-drug messages and building healthy, safe and drug-free neighborhoods.
This report urges lawmakers to increase federal and state funding for prevention and treatment efforts, and public health officials to increase training for screening, diagnosis, referral and treatment. It also calls on the justice system to expand treatment and services for teens in correctional facilities, and offer more transitional and after-care services to those re-entering the community.
Many teens don't understand how drug tests work, who can require them, and whether being around drug-users, particularly marijuana smokers, can lead to positive results for non-users. To help them find the answers to their questions, the administration has put all of the information in one place.
Most kids do not take drugs—and the number of those who do has been declining since the mid-1990s. Still, kids face risks from drugs, alcohol and tobacco—often because the "user" is an adult responsible for caring for them. Learn about successful prevention efforts and how stable and involved adults can make a difference in our Substance Abuse topic page.
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