Lifeplan Institute | 10 Million Teenagers in 10 Years: 5,000 Teens in 3 Years

Special Report - Dateline 2012, three years from our beginning.

We now have 5,000 young people who have benefited from Lifeplan:

• 96% stayed in school
• 99% did not become a teen parent
• 97% did not join a gang
• 86% did not use drugs

This compares with national averages that are about half of these outcomes. In addition, all reported better grades and better relationships. The majority of these students attend schools in challenged environments.

Some of the qualitative outcomes we have garnered from our surveys include: Much better relationships with peers, better grades, no more detentions, greater self esteem, sense of purpose and direction and desire to finish school.

Deployed in 20 states, Lifeplan continues to grow.

We now have the National Football Foundation partnering with us. Their goal is to reach 500,000 student athletes with Lifeplan. The Positive Coaching Alliance out of Stanford University is looking to include Lifeplan as an asset for the coaches they train. The First Tee and Tiger Woods Foundation are evaluating Lifeplan for inclusion in their character development work. The Salvation Army has piloted Lifeplan in Hawaii with great success and their staff there is advocating expansion nationwide.

Lifeplan's deployment is as innovative as the program itself. For very little costs, we are able to train teachers, coaches, after school program staff, youth development professionals, mentors, and helping professionals. Once they have it, they have it forever! Lifeplan is scalable and sustainable. It leverages existing youth delivery systems by training them up with this new asset. It is sustainable because once these systems have it they have it forever.

In a world where we are always looking for leverage, ROI (return on investment), sustainability, and minimal bureaucracy, Lifeplan at $30 per kid, is a great investment! It is not a panacea, but given the hundreds of billions the federal/state governments have spent the past four decades on prevention efforts, with little benefit, it might be time to seriously consider our collective effort to insure that every young person has access to a Lifeplan!!

All the best,
Andy