Recent grants totaling more than $7.9 million will allow an Iowa State University youth drug prevention program to expand to help youngsters and families across the United States.

The Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute at ISU is the home of PROSPER, a program developed by scientists at ISU and Penn State to create evidence-based prevention programs in Iowa and Pennsylvania. PROSPER is short for Promoting School-Community-University Partnerships to Enhance Resilience.

Richard Spoth, director of the Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute, said what makes PROSPER unique is that all of the programs it implements are based on scientific results.