Positive Youth Development
Since 1998, Philip Morris USA has invested in positive youth development as a way to help address a core business concern: underage tobacco use.
In addition to the actions we’ve taken to market responsibly and limit underage access to tobacco products, we continued to invest in impactful evidence-based positive youth development, prevention and cessation programs. Positive youth development theory posits that emphasizing protective factors in kids’ lives – such as positive relationships and activities – and reducing risk factors, helps kids make healthy decisions and resist a broad range of risky behaviors, including tobacco use.
With a focus on middle school students, our Success360° initiative aims to promote the healthy development of kids and help them avoid risky behaviors like tobacco use.
Through this initiative, Altria’s tobacco companies partner with leading youth-serving organizations such as 4-H, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Clubs, Communities In Schools and The First Tee. Success360° programs include mentoring, adolescent substance abuse prevention and tobacco cessation programs.
We're supporting our Success360° prevention and cessation grantees to pursue an integrated approach to programming and direct service interventions and prevention in an expanded geography of 20 states. These states were strategically selected based on where prevention partners have a footprint and youth use of tobacco products is highest. This approach is the result of increased and strengthened alignment of the prevention and adolescent cessation programs at a national level. It includes a focus on pursuing an evidence-based approach, credentials for prevention programs (including Blueprints designation) and identifying additional funding partners and revenue streams to support and promote the work.
