Drug abuse in our youth has been a problem for many years. Parents have been fighting this battle for many years. In 1980, over thirty years ago, a small group of parents formed the “National Family Partnership”, and today they are a national leader in drug prevention education and advocacy. Their main goal is a healthy, drug free youth. They now have almost 100 partners across the nation, which include local coalitions, PTO groups and parent committees. They offer support to these local groups and serve as a national voice. The groups serve to educate, provide drug awareness and advocate for a drug free youth.
The National Family Partnership has fostered many programs that have had a large impact on our youth. The Red Ribbon Campaign was one of the first the group implemented. The Red Ribbon campaign started in 1985 in response to the killing of a DEA agent. People across communities wore red ribbons as a symbol of their commitment to raise awareness of the killing in destruction caused by drugs across America. In 1988 the National Family Partnership took the campaign national and it has been going strong every year with new themes and weeklong campaigns.
Safe Homes/Safe Parties is another program that the National Family Partnership is involved in. This program helps parents by giving them information and support for teen and pre-teen parties, hosting these parties, sending their children to these parties, and what to do when parents are out of town. Their goal is to change the statistic of the median age that youth start drinking is age 12-by having parents pledge to not host parties where there is alcohol and drugs and not supporting parties in their communities where alcohol and drugs are allowed.
Lock your Meds is another very effective campaign that has taken the national stage. This campaign targets adults ages 20-80 and encourages them to lock their prescription medications. Many adults are not aware that they are supplying drugs to people simply by not taking proper precautions. This program started on the national level and has many states adopting this campaign to spread awareness of prescription drug abuse.
The National Family Partnership is striving for a drug free youth, and we should all be involved in this fight as our youth are our future.