LifeSmart Youth is a social services agency that focuses on the empowerment of youth to make responsible choices and adopt healthy behaviors. LifeSmart Youth has provided social and sexual health education to Indiana’s youth through dramatic cultural changes. The agency’s name and mission have evolved continually over the decades to reflect changing social mores.
In 1938, Lydia Woollen Ritchey and Nell Harrington established the Anti-Syphilis League of Indiana to assist and educate the public about venereal diseases. Its name changed to the Indiana Social Hygiene Association in 1939.
In 1942, the organization again changed its name to the Indianapolis Social Hygiene Association (ISHA) to reflect its narrower mission and focus on the city of Indianapolis. These changes led ISHA to receive funding from the Indianapolis .
In 1943, ISHA hired as its first executive director, and it received designation as a public charity from the Internal Revenue Service. As venereal disease rates declined with the availability of penicillin in 1945, the agency began to focus on education to promote stable family life.
In the 1960s, the agency began to develop a formal sex education curriculum for the public as well as the school system, including elementary and secondary students. It shifted a key tenet from hygiene to health to become the Indianapolis Social Health Association. In the 1970s the agency focused solely on school-based sex education and once again changed its name to the Social Health Association of Central Indiana to reflect its programming outside of Marion County.
In the 1990s, the agency introduced the “Life Skills” curriculum to focus on the importance of responsible choices and healthy behaviors. In the early 2000s, its mission broadened to include a wider range of health issues, such as HIV/AIDS, bullying, and violence prevention.
In 2018 the Social Health Association of Indiana rebranded as LifeSmart Youth, Inc. In 2019, LifeSmart Youth taught more than 67,000 hours of programming to over 22,000 students (K-8) in 10 Indiana counties. Since 1943, LifeSmart Youth has served over one million Indiana youth. LifeSmart Youth has provided more than one million classes answering kids’ questions about the changes in their bodies and relationships and about dealing with adolescence.
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