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The Young Marines program educates and inspires the youth within our communities by promoting a healthy and drug-free lifestyle through instructional and adventurous activities. We develop responsible citizens using the volunteer resources of a civilian and military partnership. The teamwork and Esprit -De-Corps enjoyed by the Young Marines help them discover the hero within.
The vision of the program is: Impacting America's future by providing a unique youth leadership program which nurtures and develops citizens in our communities, instilling the corps values of honor, courage, and commitment.
In today's world, there are many opportunities for young Americans to be led astray into crime, drug use, poor academic performance, and other vices. In the Young Marines, peer pressure (which is often the cause of these vices) is exerted toward wholesome ends such as school work, sports, physical fitness and other school and community activities.
The Young Marines Program provides an alternative for youth. The program seeks to instill a sense of pride in the youth - pride in themselves, in their community and in their country. Both youth and adult staff help to police their own ranks because it provides the opportunity for our youth to develop self-discipline and motivation by exposing them to positive adult role models, instruction and guidance. The advocacy of a drug-free lifestyle is particularly important given the pervasiveness of the drug threat to our children today and the resultant violence and moral corruption that drugs lead to by their nature. In view of the damage that illicit drugs do to children and American society as a whole, the need to mobilize all available resources with which to fight the battle against their use is obvious.
As part of the National effort to "stem the tide" of drug abuse, the National Defense Authorization Act for 1993 tasked the Secretary of Defense with the establishment of programs aimed at reducing the demand for illegal drugs. The Marine Corps' response was to officially recognize the Young Marines in July 1993, as the focal organization for the Marine Corps' contribution to Youth Drug Demand Reduction efforts.
The type of support that the Marine Corps itself is willing to provide for the Young Marines is detailed in Marine Corps Order 5000.20. This order authorized Marine Corps Bases and Stations, including Reserve Centers, to provide facilities for meetings, training aids, accommodations, demonstrations and other types of support on a not-to-interfere basis.
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