More than 10 years ago, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) began an experiment.  Faced with a decade of substance abuse that had reached an all-time high, the Foundation, known as the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care, set out to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse: tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

To achieve that goal, RWJF announced it was accepting proposals for a new program called the Fighting Back initiative.  The entities awarded grants would take a grass-roots approach to reducing the demand for alcohol and illegal substances.  The key component to this project was that the grantee could tailor the program to suit community needs.

In 1989, fed up with the rise of crime and violence in their community, a group of San Antonio citizens came together to iron out a plan of action.  The groups understood that if they reduced crime and violence, they would eventually cut to the root of the problem, substance abuse.  Having created short and long term plans, the citizens group joined forces with the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County and submitted a proposal to RWJF.  The following year, the proposal was accepted and the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County added a new department to its agency.  San Antonio Fighting Back of United Way was born.

SAFB became one of 14 Fighting Back sites across the country and the only such program in Texas.  Today there are only seven sites of which SAFB is one.  Each site was tasked with reducing the demand for alcohol and illegal substances.  However, sites traditionally would not provide direct services to the community.  Rather, FB sites would act as the bridge between community people and local, state and federal agencies, and law enforcement entities to create longstanding systemic changes.  Unlike its counterparts, SAFB conducted its work within a specific target zone: a 25-mile area on the East and Southeast sectors of the city.

Over the years, SAFB has conducted a variety of programs designed to impact its three goals of increasing treatment accessibility, reducing drug-related crime, and preventing youth substance abuse.  Today those programs include Operation Weed & Seed, Value-Based Violence Prevention Initiative, Ex-Offender Transition Services, Project SUCCESS, and Too Smart to Start.