Since 1990, Dr. Mary Langley has been a part of the Health Promotion Resource Center (HPRC) at MSM, first as a project director, then rising in 1999 to the post of director. Langley works to promote youth development and family-centered activities that increase educational opportunities and positive life outcomes among Georgia's minorities and the economically disadvantaged.

Q: Tell us about the HPRC's charter.
A: We work to develop community and faith programs and service that promote and sustain healthy families and communities, especially minority families in underserved and economically challenged urban and rural areas throughout Georgia. Although our prevention and health promotion efforts are available to all ethnic and/or racial groups, most of our major endeavors have been geared toward African Americans because of the numerous educational, social and health disparities in this population.

Q: What is your definition of underserved?
A: These are people with limited or no access to health prevention care, health promotion, and health resources; in some cases, without us, they wouldn't have select prevention services. We serve both inner-city and rural children and adults, especially in communities in Southwest and West Central Georgia. However, through our diverse training and community development efforts, our services can be classified as statewide.

Q: So HPRC is a safety net of sorts?
A: In those areas where we provide direct services to these families, HPRC is filling the void. In other areas, through technical assistance and training, we bring resources that help communities develop programs and gain funding for sustainability, especially in rural areas; our full-time staff of seven is totally supported by grants. Since its inception, HPRC has served up to 100 counties, including three of the poorest counties in the state - Clay, Quitman and Stewart. In 10 years, we have brought in $2 to $3 million in services to residents.

Q: You have a variety of successful programs centered around abstinence.
A: I believe in pairing abstinence with youth development activities. When we have implemented additional strategies with abstinence, kids have graduated as valedictorians, gone to college, even become teachers. This is an area with a high rate of [high-school] drop-outs. With after-school programs, we increase their decision-making success and self-sufficiency. They stay in school, go into the military or into the workforce. They realize they can gain things without playing football or basketball or selling drugs. In 10 years of abstinence education programs, we have only documented two pregnancies [from program participants].

Q: You are talking about making an investment in kids. What are the biggest misconceptions people might have about these types of programs?
A: That it is a waste of money to include something other than abstinence or academic education. For example, in the past, midnight basketball was one of the most misunderstood prevention strategies. Youth's participation in midnight basketball can transfer into actual life-building skills and good outcomes for the community. Besides giving kids immediate gratification and getting them off the street, violence goes down. It teaches kids how to interact, to communicate, and to take their aggression out on the court, not each other. These are peripheral things that people don't see. But taxpayers should know that these and other prevention activities will help kids develop life skills and a belief system of 'I can be somebody and I won't become a tax burden through welfare dependency or incarceration.'

Q: Have you been able to "prove" this return on investment?
A: I am trying to get funding to go back and track these kids, to put some faces and stories together. I want to show that if you have a $500,000 project with 50 kids what the lifetime earning [of those kids] will be. I know that in the long-term, the return on investment far exceeds the initial investment. And often the parents are also getting a benefit, in computer education programs, for instance.

Q: You also expose the kids to role models, right?
A: They see a lot of things on TV and are influenced by the media. But I believe life is a laboratory. You can teach conflict resolution on a three-day trip to Washington, D.C., living with three people you've never met before.

Q: Tell us about President Bush's Compassion Capital Fund (CCF), which has been a real success.
A: We have had astronomical success building organizational capacity with the CCF. We launched that program in October 2005 and it ended in February 2007. We worked with faith-based organizations to fund 36 separate groups to build community. The Clayton County Fatherhood Initiative was one of only 20 out of 387 groups to be nationally recognized.

Q: What is the Fatherhood Initiative?
A: The Fatherhood Initiative encourages teen men to get involved in their children's lives or to postpone fatherhood. It is really one of our stars.

Q: Moving forward, what is the HPRC's focus going to be?
A: We want to shift our resources to capacity building, teaching locals how to run their own programs. We will bring in training and technical oversight and funding. And we will increasingly move into an intermediary role, facilitating collaboration versus competition between two or three organizations. We want to be a major trainer and facilitator. My idea is to maximize the potential of individuals and communities. That's one reason I've been in intervention and services versus research. I go over and above for these kids.