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The Best Men Logo

The Best Men logo symbolizes a modern day knight of honor who believes in the values of strength, courage, foresight, truth, and justice. The shield is divided into four quadrants representing key components of the Best Men program.

• The eagle. A symbol of foresight. The boys focus on daily challenges as well as their future goals. They learn the importance of organization and planning.
• The lion. A symbol of strength and courage. The boys learn to have the self-confidence to stand up for their beliefs and for what is right.
• The anchor. A symbol of stability. The boys develop the ability to stand up to negative peer pressure, to make positive decisions on their own and to have self-control.
• The gavel. A symbol of truth and justice. They boys are taught to be truthful and fair in their dealings with others and to use good decision-making skills in the pursuit of integrity.

Safety Rules

• Get permission before going anywhere.
• Never hitchhike or ride with anyone without permission.
• Choose friends and those you date close to your age.
• Remember what you send in a text is forever
• Stay away from isolated areas and short cuts. Use well-lit main streets.
• Exit the chatroom or Internet if pornography is present
• Never give out personal information to strangers over the phone or on the Internet.
• Sit near the driver on an empty bus or subway.
• Make certain that the person you are dating understands you choose to avoid sex because the best choice is to wait until marriage.
• Say “no” to someone who touches you in a way that makes you physically or emotionally uncomfortable.
• Alcohol harms your health, impairing your judgment and decision-making process.
• Drugs hurt you, your family, and friends. They harm your body and can lead to death.
• Never keep a secret that makes you feel uncomfortable.
• Use the buddy system.
• Tell a parent, guardian, or mentor if someone threatens you or your family, or tries to force you to do something you don’t want to do.
• Your body is special and private. Do not allow someone to touch your private parts.
• Use good judgment when you are home alone. Do not open the door for anyone or tell tele-phone callers that an adult is not present.
• Protect your safety and that of others by reporting suspicious activity.

What We Believe

• The best kind of friend is one who encourages you to be a better person.
• The best decision is to avoid sex until marriage or until a long term mutually exclusive relationship.
• Sex is never a test of love.
• The decision not to have sex until marriage is a good one.
• The decision not to take drugs is a good one. It is illegal to take drugs.
• The decision not to drink alcohol in high school is a good one. In most jurisdictions it is illegal to drink alcoholic beverages before the age of 21.
• Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life. Past mistakes do not mean that one must continue in the same pattern.

Diamond Girl Leadership

When Best Friends girls reach ninth grade, they enter the Diamond Girl Leadership, a program designed to keep girls interested, involved, and committed to their character development through high school and college.

All Diamond Girls participate in the Diamond Girl Jazz Choir or Performance Dance Troupe which fosters discipline as well as the social and presentation skills important for future success. Our goal is for all Diamond Girls to graduate from high school with specific college, vocational, or career plans.

Diamond Girl Leadership Curriculum Follow this link to see our curriculum subjects and schedule for a school year. You can also view a .pdf file of a sample section of our curriculum program guide. This page also provides a table of contents list of our curriculum subjects and resources to consider for use in your own youth development/character building pro-gram.

For Best Friend Foundation high school seminar students:

Developed by professionals with almost 40 years of experience in linking high school students with colleges and universities, My College Options® connects students to 2,000 colleges and universities nationwide and has almost 5 .5 million students already enrolled. The My College Options® system of matching students with the colleges and universities that are right for them will play a large role in helping students reach their post-secondary goals.

Staff

Elayne Bennett Founder and President ebennett@bestfriendsfoundation.org 202.394.4501 Elayne Bennett developed the Best Friends program for adolescent girls in 1987 while at the Child Development Center at Georgetown University. Because of its success, teachers and principals urged her to develop a boys program. She launched the Best Men program in 2000. Mrs. Bennett is the President and Founder of the Best Friends Foundation. She is the author of the Best Friends program model and curriculum materials for elementary, middle and high school students and has taught the Foundation’s character education drug, violence and abuse prevention curriculum in 27 DC Public Schools located in Wards 1 – 8. Mrs. Bennett is a spokeswoman on issues of adolescent behavior in the current culture and presents solutions for the improvement of peer interaction and the promotion of positive character development and achievement.

Elayne Bennett has appeared on several national television shows, which showcased the Best Friends and Best Men programs. These programs have served over 5,000 students in DCPS and an additional 3,000 students nationwide. These shows include ABC Nightline, CBS The Early Show, PBS To the Contrary, Fox News Fox News the The O’Reilly Factor and The Story with Martha MacCallum, ABC World News Tonight, and NBC The Today Show. Her speeches and collected writings have contributed to the books Giving Back by Merrill J. Oster and Mike Hamel, Restoring the Teenage Soul by Margaret Meeker, M.D., Building a Healthy Society by Editor Don Eberly, Her Op-Ed “The Violence in ur Schools Must Stop” was published in LifeZette. She has given testimony on the Best Friends model of positive peer interaction in the prevention of teen pregnancy before the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight in the House of Representatives, the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Committee on Ways and Means, and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

Her Best Friends program research data on the program model in DCPS was accepted for publication by the Journal for Adolescent and Family Health in April 2005. A study (2010) at Georgetown University on 900 students from DCPS schools demonstrated significant increase in middle and high school students’ willingness to advise their peers to reject risk behaviors of drugs, alcohol, violence and sexual activity. In addition, the study reported decreases in drug and alcohol use, sexual activity and bullying.

Her book Daughters in Danger: Helping Girls Thrive into Today’s Culture, was published in 2014. Daughters in Danger has been recommended by educators for parents of adolescents and has received high marks by reviewers and is available at Amazon.com. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Drop Out Prevention Network. Elayne Bennett earned her B.A. and M.Ed. from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and completed doctoral course work in statistical analysis and research design at both UNC and University of Maryland, College Park. Mrs. Bennett was honored with the prestigious Jefferson Award for National Public Service, the John Carroll Society Award, the William E. Simon Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award. She is a member of the Ethics, Religion, and Public Policy task force of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and served on the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the wife of William J. Bennett and the mother of two sons.

Lauren Mauney Communications Manager & Scholarships Coordinator lmauney@bestfriendsfoundation.org	Carson Ries Finance Director carson@bestfriendsfoundation.org
D’Angelo Anderson Outreach & Social Media Consultant danderson@bestfriendsfoundation.org	Robin S. Williams Musical Production Consultant rwilliams@bestfriendsfoundation.org
Tommy Taylor Jr. Production Consultant tommy@tommytaylorjr.com