Our History
The History of National Center for Youth Issues

In 1981, Dr. Jimmy Lee founded Project 714 to address drug abuse in one Chattanooga, TN high school.  The organization evolved into STARS (Students Taking A Right Stand), a single-focus provider of substance abuse prevention and intervention.  We learned that much destructive behavior is part of an overall problem in the lives of students – moral confusion and a lack of positive core values.  We began to develop materials, curricula and support programs to teach good character traits and basic civic virtues and life-skills.

Word of our programs quickly spread to schools outside Hamilton County, TN generating a national constituency and a new name – National Center for Youth Issues.  Today, we are known as one of the primary resources for character education and life-skills development materials, training and services.  More than 29,000 schools across the country have used materials and services provided by us to enhance and deliver the message to over ten million children and youth.

One of our guiding principles is captured in the words of Theodore Roosevelt who said, “To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to create a menace to society.”