The new national nonprofit Kids in a Drug Free Society will use $3.6 million in donations to launch an awareness campaign and a 10-hour interactive training program to help parents talk with teenagers about alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse.

The program was launched with the help of a two-year, $2.6 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a $1 million pledge from the Public Relations Society of America.

PRSA volunteers will coordinate the community-based campaigns to promote the program, which will reach parents in their workplaces across the country. PRSA also will find businesses at which to offer the training workshop. It will be offered at no cost to the employer, the employee or the community.

The workshops will start in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis and Portland. The workshop was designed at the University of Washington and is described as more than an "awareness" campaign. Rather, it's a training program that teach parents to find ways to discuss drug, tobacco and alcohol abuse with their kids.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., gives grants related to health and health care. PRSA, headquartered in New York, is a professional organization of more than 20,000 public relations practitioners.

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