RD131 - Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth 2013 Annual Report


Executive Summary:
I am pleased to report to you that during fiscal year 2013 the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth reached a major milestone: More than a million Virginia children have now participated in our classroom-based prevention programs!

While we routinely reach about a half million or more Virginia youth each year via social media and our award-winning marketing campaign, we are especially proud of this new landmark because our classroom-based prevention programs directly engage children in their public schools, community centers and after-school programs.

VFHY’s compendium of evidence-based prevention programs delivers age-appropriate lessons to children from preschool through high school. Hundreds of thousands of preschoolers in Virginia start out learning life lessons from their puppet friends from VFHY’s Al’s Pals program and will later go on to participate in programs for older children such as "LifeSkills Training" and "Too Good For Drugs." While all the programs are aimed at reducing and preventing tobacco use, our programs take a holistic approach and also helps arm children by teaching them other useful life skills such as how to deal with peer pressure and how to resolve conflicts peacefully. And of course, as we’ve added childhood obesity prevention to our mission, we also offer supplemental programs that focus on physical activity and good nutrition.

Our educational programs are just one of VFHY’s multifaceted approaches to prevention that you’ll find within this annual report. But we believe it’s been an important part of how VFHY has helped to dramatically reduce youth tobacco use in Virginia over the last decade.

By reducing and preventing youth tobacco use and childhood obesity, the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth aims to make a great impact on the health of Virginia’s children, teaching them to make healthy choices to last their entire lives.

Sincerely,

/s/ Marty H. Kilgore

Executive Director
Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth