The Evolution of Too Good

C. E. Mendez Foundation and the Evolution of Too Good

The Too Good programs are developed and published by the C. E. Mendez Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a long-standing commitment to improving the health and well-being of children and families.

The Foundation was established in Tampa, Florida, by Charles E. Mendez, Sr., to support charitable organizations serving children and families in need.  In 1975, under the leadership of Charles E. Mendez, Jr., the Foundation redirected its resources toward addressing the growing problem of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among young people.  The Foundation concluded that reaching children early, before risk became harmful behavior, offered the strongest opportunity to improve long-term outcomes. 

From an Idea to a Prevention Model

The Foundation began with a straightforward philosophy: young people are more likely to make healthy decisions when they receive accurate, age-appropriate information about behavioral and health risks while also developing the personal and interpersonal skills needed to act on that knowledge.

This approach recognized that prevention could not depend on warnings or information alone.  Students also needed the ability to set meaningful goals, make responsible decisions, identify and manage emotions, communicate effectively, build positive relationships, and respond constructively to peer influence.

In 1979, the Foundation began putting this philosophy into practice through its Me-ology classes taught in grade six students in Hillsborough County Public Schools.  These early lessons were delivered directly by Mendez Foundation Prevention Specialists, allowing the organization to observe how students responded to the instruction and how prevention concepts could be translated into practical, engaging classroom experiences.

The Development of Too Good

As the Foundation gained experience, its prevention model expanded beyond a single grade and developed into a coordinated sequence of instruction for students from kindergarten through high school.

What became Too Good for Drugs grew from this continuing process of classroom application, professional observation, curriculum development, and revision.  The programs were designed to establish a developmentally appropriate foundation of self-efficacy and interpersonal skills and then apply those skills to substance use, peer influence, health, relationships, and other challenges students encounter as they mature.

The Foundation later extended the same skills-based philosophy to violence prevention through Too Good for Violence, now presented as A Peaceable Place.  This program applies the underlying framework to communication, anger management, conflict resolution, empathy, respect, and peaceful responses to interpersonal problems.

Today, the broader Too Good framework includes substance use prevention, violence prevention, and nutrition education.  Across these applications, the central purpose remains consistent: to build protection within the child by strengthening the skills, attitudes, relationships, and competencies associated with healthy decision-making.

Evidence and Continuing Revision

Too Good has not remained static.  The programs have evolved as prevention research, student needs, social conditions, product forms, and patterns of risk have changed.

Independent evaluations have examined the effects of Too Good on student skills, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors.  The Foundation also uses information from direct-service implementations and quality-assurance activities to monitor student outcomes and inform continuing program development.

Evidence does not simply serve as a promotional claim attached to a finished product.  It is part of an ongoing development process.  Evaluation findings, implementation experience, instructor feedback, changes in substance use patterns, and emerging knowledge about learning and behavior all help the Foundation determine what should be preserved, clarified, strengthened, or revised.

Program names and presentation may also evolve to communicate the programs’ broader purpose.  Too Good for Drugs, now presented as TGFD - Maximizing Life, while Too Good for Violence is presented as TGFV - A Peaceable Place.  These names reflect the programs’ wider emphasis on self-efficacy, interpersonal competence, healthy relationships, and preparation for life, not a departure from their established prevention model.

Protecting Program Quality

The Foundation’s role does not end when curriculum materials are published.  It continues through instructor training, implementation planning, technical assistance, program updates, and fidelity support.

Too Good lessons are intentionally structured and sequenced.  Their effects depend not only on the topics addressed but also on how the skills are introduced, practiced, connected, and applied.  The Foundation’s fidelity model therefore emphasizes instructor preparation, appropriate instructional dosage, delivery of lessons and activities in their intended order, use of the complete program materials, and active student participation.

Training helps instructors understand the research and rationale behind the programs, experience the interactive activities, examine the developmental progression of skills, and prepare to deliver the curriculum with confidence and consistency.  Implementation assistance helps schools and organizations preserve the program’s essential components while integrating it responsibly into local systems and schedules.

These supports are not separate from the program.  They are part of the Foundation’s continuing responsibility to protect program quality and help implementers achieve the intended outcomes.

Continuing the Work

Too Good is the product of decades of prevention practice, curriculum development, classroom experience, research, and refinement.  Its history is not simply the history of a set of materials.  It is the continuing development of a prevention model intended to give young people the capacity to make healthy decisions before risks become lasting harms.

The C. E. Mendez Foundation remains the developer, publisher, steward, and principal source of training and implementation support for the Too Good programs.  As the circumstances facing children change, the Foundation continues to study, revise, and strengthen the programs while preserving the principles and instructional structure on which their effectiveness depends.