Best Friends (there is a companion program for boys called Best Men) began in Washington, D.C., in 1987 and has since expanded to serve 24 cities in 15 states. Beginning in fifth grade, girls are initiated into a school-based program with teachers and other school personnel serving as mentors and with the girls themselves offering a positive and mutually reinforcing peer group.

 The curriculum, which requires more than 110 hours per year both during the school day and before and after school, includes units on "Friendship," "Love and Dating," "Self-Respect," "Decision-Making," "Alcohol Abuse," "Drug Abuse," "Physical Fitness and Nutrition," and "AIDS and STDs."

 Part of the program is group-based, but an equally important piece is one-on-one mentoring relationships with teachers (all volunteers). Best Friends girls do not sign pledges, but do commit to abstinence through high school graduation.

 The results of the program have been dramatic. Compared with District of Columbia girls of comparable age, income, race and family structure examined in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), Best Friends girls were eight times less likely than others to use drugs. They were six times less likely than YRBS girls to engage in premarital sex. Among eighth-graders, 65.6 percent of Best Friends girls abstained from alcohol, compared to only 37.3 percent of YRBS youngsters.

 How do they do it? Founder Elayne Bennett's genius is to disguise wholesomeness, maturity and wisdom as cool. The younger girls get T-shirts, dance classes, camaraderie and Best Friends paraphernalia, in addition to the necessary study guides and films and stories.

 As the girls reach high school, they are exposed to leading women like Alma Powell, wife of Colin Powell, Lark McCarthy, anchorwoman, and Margaret Auger, restaurateur. The most promising win college scholarships financed by Best Friends donors. At the annual "Recognition Ceremony," usually held at Washington's Kennedy Center, the older girls get their first opportunity to dress in evening gowns and be received as dignified young ladies.

 Dignity is not what the condom crowd is after -- which is why this column is probably the first you've heard about this impressive study.