Upward Reach Foundation

Upward Reach Foundation is a 501 – (c) – 3 private non-profit Foundation. Over the past 20 years the Foundation has provided a variety of mental health and substance abuse services. In recent years Upward Reach has focused on developing an evidence-based pornography prevention program. Upward Reach’s number one objective is to eliminate underage viewing of pornographic material. The science of prevention has successfully demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing a variety of problem behaviors including alcohol use, drug use, suicide, etc. There has been no organized effort or research pursuing a prevention program focusing on the underage viewing of pornography. Upward Reach has embarked on this project of developing, executing, and researching an effective pornography prevention program.

The Foundation eliminates underage viewing of pornographic material by:

Maintaining prevention communities. The Foundation maintains two social networking prevention communities. The communities are Voices for Virtue for kids and Porn Proofing Kids for parents and other caregivers.

Adapting evidence based prevention strategies. The Foundation adapts strategies that have already been proven to have successfully prevented underage alcohol use to the area of underage viewing of pornography. Voices For Virtue is based on proven prevention strategies from Communities That Care. Porn Proofing Kids is based on the proven prevention strategies from Parents Empowered. The adaptation includes adding the component of “Wholesome Sexuality” to these proven prevention strategies.

Writing and researching prevention curricula. Based on the adapted prevention strategies, the Foundation sponsors written professional curricula and researches the effectiveness of these curricula. Once proven effective, these curricula are delivered to the Foundation prevention communities and others.