Youth Apostles Institute in Manassas Awarded $120,000 Grant for Tobacco-Use Prevention

The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY) has awarded $9.2 million in tobacco-use prevention grants to 62 youth organizations across Virginia, including $120,792 to the Youth Apostles Institute at Don Bosco Youth Center in Manassas.

The three-year grants will fund classroom-based prevention programs starting July 1, 2015. Programs will take place throughout the Commonwealth, serving children from preschool through high school with age-appropriate curriculum programs including Al’s Pals, LifeSkills Training and Too Good For Drugs.

The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth empowers Virginia’s youth to make healthy choices by “promoting active, nutritious and tobacco-free living.” Since VFHY began its work in 2001, the organization has helped cut smoking among Virginia high school students by more than 60 percent and among middle school students by more than 75 percent.

For more information, visit www.vfhy.org.