Significant challenges face minority youth in developing a productive, healthy lifestyle for their future. The first most enduring responsibility any society can possess is to ensure the health and well-being of its children. Childhood and adolescence are the ideal times to establish positive behaviors that affect health for a lifetime. Collectively, the YEP grantees test innovative approaches to foster education, resiliency assets, protective factors, fitness, and wellness, while working to eliminate risky behaviors in reproductive health, violence, drugs, and alcohol. The goal of YEPs across the country is to help minority youth reach their full potential, to instill healthy life choices, and ultimately decrease morbidity and mortality now and in the future.
