South Los Angeles Counselor Brings Scientology-Supported Truth About Drugs to Community Youth

1/19/2013 2:00 PM EST

Jess Mendoza’s community center in South Los Angeles conducts Truth About Drugs education lectures.

Youth in South LA are getting the chance they need, thanks to Jess Mendoza and the Truth About Drugs education and prevention program.

Mendoza is paying forward, grateful for the good luck or providence that helped him turn his own life around when, as a teenager, involved in gangs and in trouble with the law, he was sent for counseling, not jail.

This opportunity set the course for Mendoza’s life. He went back to school and earned a master’s degree in counseling. He is always interested in effective programs to help kids and families in the Southern California communities his community center serves, including Compton, Crenshaw, Florence, Lynwood and Watts.

Mendoza was introduced to the Truth About Drugs program supported by the Church of Scientology through a series of workshops organized by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Multi-Faith Clergy Council in May 2011. Since completing that training, twice a week at his community center he has been conducting Truth About Drugs lectures for youth. This year he is expanding the scope of his Truth About Drugs activities, with lectures to youth at four local high schools.

Mendoza says that what he likes best about the Truth About Drugs materials is the impact of the message—that the booklets, public service announcements and documentary bring home to youth the consequences of taking drugs, giving them the certainty they need to make their own decisions to live drug-free.

The Church of Scientology has published Scientology: How We Help—The Truth About Drugs, Creating a Drug-Free World, a brochure to meet requests for more information about the drug education and prevention initiative it supports. To learn more or to read a copy of the brochure, visit http://www.Scientology.org/antidrug.

Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “The planet has hit a barrier which prevents any widespread social progress—drugs and other biochemical substances. These can put people into a condition which not only prohibits and destroys physical health but which can prevent any stable advancement in mental or spiritual well-being.”

The Church of Scientology supports the Truth About Drugs, one of the world’s largest nongovernmental drug education and prevention campaigns. It has been conclusively proven that when young people are provided with the truth about drugs—factual information on what drugs are and what they do—usage rates drop commensurately.