Six Insights For SADD Nation: Part 1

A lot has changed since 1981, but a lot remains the same.

We still have one of my favorite franchises going: Rocky [Balboa], although now in the form of Creed. You can still stop by a coffee shop (albeit with way more options) for a nice quick cup of coffee, although you may have to take some time to explain "regular dark roast" versus their go-to Expresso Macchiato. Of course, the need to address drunk driving and distracted driving remains high, although we now have to add in things like cell phones, a boom in advertisements along the streets, and the beginning of some autonomous driving features.

It's like, just when you think, "I think we solved it," you're reminded of the issues and topics that remain the same and the constant need to revisit the past all the while adapting to the future.

The same is true for SADD.

We're no longer Students Against Driving Drunk. In 1997, thanks to our commitment to being youth-led and student-driven, we became Students Against Destructive Decisions. We understood that in order to address drunk driving, especially from a peer-to-peer education standpoint, we needed to look at youth decision-making on a variety of topics, as if they are all related. Hint hint. Personal health, mental health, substance use, and traffic and mobility safety (e.g., driving drunk) were all important to our student membership. Stir that around, elevate their voices on these topics, and all of a sudden - not because it was new or some innovative outcome - you have the need to instill leadership within these pillars of work.

Fast forward to 2024.

Now, as SADD, Inc. [Students Against Destructive Decisions], we empower and mobilize students and adult allies to engage in positive change through leadership and smart decision-making. Our mission is accomplished by creating, equipping, and sustaining a network of student-run chapters in schools and communities focused on peer-to-peer education, fostering a sense of belonging, and promoting resiliency, leadership, and advocacy skills so that young people make positive life decisions that will carry them throughout life.

We have gone from advocating to stop the negative consequences of driving drunk to proactively addressing decision-making for life-long positive change.

Read that last part again.

Proactively addressing decision-making for life-long positive change.

But, wasn't that true back in 1981, as it is true in 2024?

• MY FIRST INSIGHT: SADD's youth-led, student-driven foundation will continue to influence our work in youth prevention and youth development well into the future.

SADD's foundation was laid strong through peer-to-peer education. The student foundation has propelled this organization in a way that, despite the challenges of economic recessions, financial hurdles, global pandemics, and leadership turnover, will forever be relevant for the generation of today - whenever "today" happens to be. You can change driving drunk with mental health...mental health with substance use...substance use with (name it). The youth-led, student-driven approach will forever solidify the future of this organization. It is what makes us stand out in a field of very good organizations and programming, many of whom we work side-by-side and partner with. Replication has been tried, spin-offs launched, and pieces duplicated, but the inclusive nature of SADD - students from all walks of life wanting to elevate their voices and the voices of their peers on topics of importance to them - has continued to be golden for over 40 years.

My hope, and, in transparency, my commitment, is to elevate youth voices even more. By doing so, we will know the issues that need to be tackled today while calling upon others to join the movement through allyship, advocacy, and funding, because this is not about changing an organization. [Remember, SADD's foundation is solid and a proven model.]

This is about changing lives.

This is about saving lives.

This is about their future.

This is about our future.

We may be youth-led and student-driven, but we all play a role through allyship, advocacy, and funding, among others. What's yours?