Google and Partnership for Drug-Free Kids Collaborate to Bring Evidence-Based Resources, Actionable Support to Parents and Families

NEW YORK, June 27, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, the leading nonprofit that supports families whose son or daughter is struggling with substance use, has expanded its partnership with Google to ensure that parents can find and have access to evidence-based resources to address a substance use disorder within their families.

This spring, Google announced a matching gift campaign to boost the Partnership's Parent Helpline, which provides families with expert guidance and personalized help when struggling with the challenges of their child's substance use. Families connect to the Partnership by phone at 855-DRUGFREE, through live chat services, text, email, and Facebook Messenger, as well as through its one-on-one parent coaching network.

So far, this campaign has driven $1,000,000 ? and counting ? of additional resources to the Parent Helpline.  Since 2015, Google has highlighted the Partnership's Parent Helpline in Google search results when U.S. families search or help with a child's substance use.

Google matched $250,000 in donations from individuals, dollar-for-dollar, during the active matching gift campaign. The challenge doubled the amount of total donations made to the charity organization from late April through early June, which also doubled the impact of the Parent Helpline in effectively delivering support services to families.

Google also provided the Partnership with a $500,000 corporate gift with hopes of helping the Partnership raise an additional $1 million through private sector partners, between now and the end of 2018. The Trailblazers for Hope Corporate Challenge couples Google's investment with the support of other corporate leaders to help an additional 30,000 families cope with their child's substance use and addiction. More easily than ever before ? and bolstered with support from Google ? parents can now find solace and assistance through the Partnership's one-on-one services, extended Helpline hours and through an expansion of the Partnership's Support Specialist team.

"We are truly grateful for the dedication and generosity of our partners at Google and to every individual that helped us raise these critical funds in record time. This match will help guarantee that our Parent Helpline and free, customized, family support services can operate at capacity and reach every parent that comes to the Partnership in need of assistance and guidance," said Fred Muench, President and CEO of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.

"Every single day, families are searching for information to help their child on Google ? and every single day, a Google search will bring them to our resources. However, due to the severity of the opioid epidemic, we've been deluged with calls, texts and live chat requests. We needed these vital support dollars to meet the increased demand," continued Muench. "We thank Google for their long-standing commitment to ensuring that families searching for answers, fearful that their child will be the next statistic, will instead find help and hope at the Partnership."

Partnership Resources, Tools Reaching More Parents and Families with Google Support

Since 2015, Google has helped more than 4.3 million families find support and guidance at drugfree.org. Through support for the Parent Helpline, free advertising provided to the Partnership and via links in Google Search on various "knowledge panels," utilizing the Partnership's information and linking to drugfree.org, Google is helping make sure that parents find reliable, credible help more easily.

Google ads are now the leading driver of web traffic to Partnership's Helpline page and Google ads have been responsible for 22 percent of site visits in the past year, followed only by natural search.

The Partnership is also working as part of a committee to advise LegitScript in their effort to create a certification process for legitimate treatment providers who want to advertise their services on Google. The goal is to use this certification process to prevent predatory treatment providers from preying upon families desperate to find help for a loved one who is facing a substance use disorder.

To learn more, please visit drugfree.org.

About the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids
The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids is committed to helping families struggling with their son's or daughter's substance use. We empower families with information, support and guidance to get the help their loved ones need and deserve. On our website, drugfree.org, and through our toll-free helpline (1-855-DRUGFREE), we provide families with direct support and guidance to help them address teen substance use. Finally, we build healthy communities, advocating for greater understanding and more effective programs to treat the disease of addiction. As a national nonprofit, we depend on donations from individuals, corporations, foundations and the public sector and are thankful to SAG-AFTRA and the advertising and media industries for their ongoing generosity. We are proud to receive a Four-Star rating from Charity Navigator, America's largest and most-utilized independent evaluator of charities, as well as a National Accredited Charity Seal from The Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance.

SOURCE The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids