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he Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE), located in the 7000 block of Hollywood Boulevard, was formed in 1988 to support, promote, license and coordinate social benefit organizations dedicated to solving the debilitating social ills of drug abuse, crime, illiteracy and immorality. These organizations have as a common denominator the utilization and application of the social technologies of author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard.
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ABLE and its social betterment organizations are supported
by Scientologists as they fulfill the broader social mission of the Church to reverse social decline.
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While also widely known as the founder of the Scientology religion, Mr. Hubbard early recognized and signaled the societal decline brought on by these social ills and developed means to overcome each one. The organizations, with their approximately 600 affiliated groups and projects, are secular and autonomous. ABLE and its social betterment organizations are supported by Scientologists as they fulfill the broader social mission of the Church to reverse social decline and achieve peace and cultural prosperity in our society.
All four public benefit organizations are based in Los Angeles.
Narconon
Narconon (meaning literally, “no drugs”) is the internationally acclaimed, drug-free drug rehabilitation program which has rehabilitated more than 15,000 people from drug dependency and addiction (see full story).
Applied Scholastics
Applied Scholastics guides, assists and licenses the growing number of schools, teachers, tutors and corporate training programs who seek Mr. Hubbard’s breakthrough learning methods known as the Study Technology. Mr. Hubbard isolated the barriers to effective learning, and the Study Technology enables one to recognize, address and overcome those barriers — opening up the doors not just to study but to the ability to apply virtually any subject.
Applied Scholastics was established in 1972 after a group of educators completed a pilot project at East Los Angeles College. After 20 hours of instruction, students accomplished an average improvement of one grade level in vocabulary comprehension, arithmetic fundamentals and spelling. The mission of Applied Scholastics became to provide effective education services and the necessary materials that help people learn how to learn and thereby work effectively to achieve their goals and realize their full potential.
Today, Applied Scholastics is international in scope, coordinating programs conducted by more than 300 educational organizations on six continents. More than three million people have participated in these programs, which include a network of private schools, teacher training programs, workplace proficiency programs, and community-based literacy projects.
Criminon
The Criminon Criminal Reform and Crime Prevention Programs address the “revolving door” of crime so evident in communities and jails today, with overcrowded prisons and repeat incarcerations the ordinary.
The purpose of Criminon programs is to reestablish the criminal’s self-respect, not to punish. Criminon accomplishes this through techniques developed by Mr. Hubbard to help a criminal isolate where he lost his self-respect and embarked on a life of criminality.
Criminon today operates in 26 countries, with programs in more than 1,400 prisons. In any given week, some 7,000 inmates are involved in Criminon programs, open to any type of offender.
The regimen of the program is broken down into courses which directly address each of the factors which lead to crime, including learning and literacy, communication, drugs, ethics and common-sense morals. Criminon encompasses correspondence courses, on-site programs and community education centers.
The Way to Happiness Foundation
The Way to Happiness Foundation, with its purpose to restore the moral fabric of society, was established in Los Angeles in 1984 in response to demand for the non-religious, common sense moral code written by L. Ron Hubbard, The Way to Happiness.
Distribution of The Way to Happiness is sponsored by individuals, businesses or groups who donate copies to youth groups, schools, clubs, social service agencies, police, the military or other organizations. These groups in turn print and distribute the booklets. More than 57 million have been distributed to date in 38 languages.
One of the many sponsoring groups is the Concerned Businessman’s Association of America (CBAA), a nonprofit, charitable organization founded in 1981 in Los Angeles. CBAA sponsors the longest-running youth program based on The Way to Happiness, the “Set a Good Example Contest.” Since its launch in 1984, more than 12 million students from more than 10,000 schools have participated in this annual contest with impressive results including significant improvements in student behavior and attitude. More than 30 state governors, along with directors of state departments of education and drug abuse programs, have endorsed the contest.
The Way to Happiness Foundation also sponsors essay contests which help children across the globe develop their own sense of moral standards. Nearly a half million students in countries as diverse as Russia, India and Hungary have participated in the contests since 1994.
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