Substance abuse is one of the nation s most serious health problems.
It is also associated with a large number of social ills, such as prenatal drug exposure, family violence, child abuse, crime, neighborhood gang activity, and unemployment. In 1994, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched Free to Grow, an initiative which targets families and communities of Head Start children to create changes that will protect them from substance abuse and related problems. A new executive summary from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., presents findings from the evaluation of the Free to Grow pilot program. The focus is on five grantees and how they implemented this substance abuse prevention initiative designed to strengthen low-income families and communities. After five years of study, the evaluation concluded that implementing substance abuse prevention strategies in partnership with Head Start is feasible and can add value to the Head Start program.