Recognizing that substance abuse is one of the nation's most serious health problems and is associated with numerous social ills, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched Free to Grow in 1994, a pilot program targeting families and communities of Head Start children to create changes that would protect them from substance abuse and related problems. Following a 2-year planning and development phase, 5 of the 6 original projects completed the 3-year implementation phase. The five sites were in California, Colorado, Kentucky, New York City, and Puerto Rico. This report discusses the implementation experiences of the five projects: how the models developed, what challenges were encountered, how problems were overcome, and what lessons can be derived from the grantees' experiences to guide future prevention efforts. Chapter 1 of the report gives an overview of the program and the evaluation, along with a description of the communities targeted by the pilot projects, a description of each project, and a presentation of the logic model for the program overall. Chapter 2 summarizes the substance abuse prevention theory underlying Free to Grow. Chapter 3 describes the Head Start context. Chapter 4 describes the interventions and implementation experiences. Chapter 5 describes the outcomes targeted by the projects and provides preliminary evidence for the changes Free to Grow projects may have brought about during the pilot program. Chapter 6 provides an assessment of the Free to Grow experience and considerations for future replication. The report's three appendices present the logic models used, a tally of responses for project outcomes, and a description of the criteria of success for Phase I and objectives for Phase II of Free to Grow. (Contains 50 references.) (KB)