SADD, Inc.
Empower Teens. Change Lives.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
SADD knows that teens today face a wide variety of issues that affect their health and safety- traffic safety, substance use, and personal health and safety. SADD works to empower teens, engage parents, and mobilize communities around these issues to ensure that every young person achieves the rich future they so deserve.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
SADD National Chapter Program
For 35 years, SADD has empowered young people to lead education and prevention initiatives in their schools and communities in three areas critical to the healthy development of young people; Teen Traffic Safety, Substance Abuse, and Personal Health & Safety. Young people building vital connections with their peers are the strongest force in prevention. Through education, advocacy, and activism, hundreds of thousands of America's youth have endorsed this idea, promoting good decision-making, choosing healthy lifestyles, and keeping their peers safe. SADD supports the growth and development of chapters primarily in middle and high schools across the country through prevention programming and peer leadership training and promotes awareness of youth health and safety issues to the general public. SADD participates in regional and national forums and coalitions focused on issues related to its mission: underage drinking, other drug use, risky and impaired driving, teen violence and suicide, and other destructive decisions. SADD also supports a network of state coordinators funded through government or charitable organizations to help deliver quality education and prevention materials and programming. Independent studies have shown that students in schools with an established SADD chapter are more aware of and informed about the risks of underage drinking, other drug use, and impaired driving. Students in schools with a SADD chapter are also more likely to hold attitudes reflecting positive reasons not to use alcohol. Beyond the amazing statistics representing a culture change to the issue of impaired driving, SADD has contributed to the development of a powerful and proud personal identity for hundreds of thousands of teenagers. SADD chapters have been those places in schools where teenagers have stood up and spoken out for a safe and healthy future for themselves and their friends. Yesterday's SADD students are today's civic and business leaders, continuing to assert their individuality and purse their goal of making their families and communities safer, stronger, and healthier.
National Underage Drinking Prevention Program
SADD implements a research-based prevention education program in targeted communities in the that engages youth and influential adults in preventing underage drinking. This campaign challenges several deeply-held beliefs: that most teens are drinking alcohol; that there are no real negative consequences when teens drink; that teens don't face any peer pressure to drink; and that drinking is a "rite of passage" for teens as they approach adulthood. This innovative, multi-component campaign also involves parents, school administrators, law enforcement, and the local media as it helps youth and adults challenge these common beliefs and assists community leaders to clarify and enforce policies that deter youth drinking.
SADD STRONG National Chapter Programs
SADD’s strength lies in numbers. To demonstrate our impact as SADD Nation, all chapters will conduct campaigns and activities at the same time of year, we call it being SADD STRONG!
The SADD national office with the help of its many partners around the country have developed a collection of THREE programs that target SADD’s three core issue areas. (Traffic Safety, Substance Abuse, and Personal Health & Safety).
October - Rock the Belt, in conjunction with National Teen Driver Safety Week
February - SADD Shines Week, held to celebrate SADD students and all you do and promote personal health and safety
April - It Worth The Risk?, in conjunction with Alcohol Awareness Month
All SADD STRONG programs are comprised of an activity guide, packed with relevant activity ideas and media templates. The activity guides aim to target three core constituencies: schools, parents, and communities.
160617_RocktheBeltRock the Belt: In Every Seat, Every Vehicle, Every Time
Rock the Belt is a SADD national core program that uses peer-to-peer based prevention strategies to engage schools, parents, and communities about the importance of wearing seat belts in every vehicle, in every seat, every time. Chapters are strongly encouraged, but not required, to hold their activities from October 16-22, 2016 in conjunction with National Teen Driver Safety Week.
Here’s a glimpse of what’s in the activity guide:
Quick-Click Challenge, a fast-paced team competition to see who can click it in the least amount of time
Seat Belt Survey, an assessment that measures seat belt use
Chalk the Walk, seat belt reminders crafted in sidewalk chalk
Seat Belt "Fasten" Show, a fashion show highlighting fun duct tape seat belts
Living Seat Belt, a human chain around city hall to spread awareness and capture media attention
And more!
SADD National Conference on Youth Health & Safety
Each year 600+ SADD Chapter students, advisors, State Coordinators and professionals from the teen health and safety community come to the national conference to celebrate the power of positive peer-pressure and receive intensive training in three specialized prevention subject tracks: Traffic Safety , Substance Abuse , and Mental Health. In addition to prevention education, the Conference offers 30+ youth-and-adult-led workshops that also include valuable life skills training in the areas of Peer Leadership, Advocacy, Public Speaking, Media Training, Fundraising, and Team Building
SADD SPEAKs (Students for Policy, Education, Advocacy, & Knowledge
SADD provides opportunity for select SADD students to join an exciting advocacy-training program called SADD SPEAKs (Students for Policy, Education, Advocacy, & Knowledge). This national program is an opportunity for students to gain valuable skills and assist the national organization through a special advocacy-training institute. The goal of SADD SPEAKs is to equip, train, and empower teen leaders in advocacy, leadership, and the public policy process around traffic safety.
SADD SPEAKs delegates will lead the national organization in its advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill and before their own state and local governments. These student leaders will have a positive and lasting effect on public policy, demonstrating the power of America’s young people to speak persuasively on critically important issues.
This year students will be asked to develop an advocacy plan to address an impaired driving issue (distracted, drowsy, drugged or underage drinking and driving).
The SPEAKs program itself consists of three components:
1. Online Training: Content will focus on public speaking, coalition building and basic advocacy skills. There will also be a series of webinars with traffic safety experts on current issues in impaired driving for teens. Finally, students will work with government affairs mentors to develop an advocacy strategy.
2. Visit to Washington DC: The capstone SPEAKs event is a four day, three night, visit to Washington, DC, where students meet with representatives of national organizations dedicated to traffic safety, Congressional staff focused on transportation policy and federal agency staff responsible for federal policy related to teen traffic safety. Students will also plan and moderate a briefing for hill staff on teens and impaired driving.
3. Follow-up and Mobilization: After visiting D.C. students will put their new skills into practice by working to influence local, state and/or federal policy as well as leading SADD’s efforts to mobilize thousands of SADD students across the country.
A group of 15 dynamic student leaders will be chosen through a competitive selection process on the basis of their experience, leadership qualities, public speaking ability, and other criteria. Applications are accepted from high school sophomores and juniors who are currently active in a SADD chapter. A panel of judges with experience in youth development, highway safety, and government agency or legislative process will make the decision about participants.
SADD Student Leadership Council and Student of the Year Program
The SADD National Student Leadership Council (SLC) plays a major role in the nationwide success of SADD. SLC members work directly with the SADD National staff on new and continuing projects, while maintaining active leadership roles within their own local chapters. Often called upon to represent the national organization, SLC members travel to conferences, media events, and task force meetings on behalf of SADD. Without exception, Student Leadership Council members are accomplished individuals who have demonstrated their commitment by reaching out to peers, friends, and younger students through SADD and other peer-support programs. They are individuals who have exemplified the SADD model of empowerment and caregiving through involvement in community service, especially in projects relating to substance abuse prevention, highway safety, and other issues that affect youth.
In addition to establishing national representation for SADD, the SLC’s goals include creating a system of grassroots communication to supply information to new and existing chapters and making recommendations to the SADD National Board of Directors for priorities and issues. The SLC’s members are actively involved in planning, implementing, and evaluating the SADD National Conference each summer, and many members present workshops at the conference.
Comprised of 8 to 10 young people, each from a different state, SLC members bring unique local and state perspectives to the national organization. The SLC is supervised by a staff advisor who helps to guide the council in its deliberations and travels. An active group, the SLC members communicate via online conference calls each month and often interact via email and Facebook throughout their term. The SLC is represented on the SADD National Board of Directors by the Student of the Year, who chairs the Council and the Student of the Year Emeritus.
SADD College Advisory Council
SADD is working to expand into the college space by selecting national youth leaders to guide us in program creation and outreach.
Where we work
Awards
Mentor Youth Initiative Award 2010
The Mentor International Prevention Awards
NOYS Youth Choice Award 2012
National Organizations for Youth Safety
Champions of Responsibilities 2019
Responsibility.Org
Affiliations & memberships
Chamber of Commerce 2004
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of youth programs offered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
SADD National Chapter Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
SADD works to build, maintain, and engage a national network of middle school, high school, and college based chapters.
Number of youth who demonstrate that they have developed positive values
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
SADD STRONG National Chapter Programs
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
SADD works to use environmental strategies to raise risk-perception and change behavior.
Number of youth who model positive behaviors for peers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
SADD National Conference on Youth Health & Safety
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
SADD hosts the annual national conference to train, empower, and mobilize our key youth leaders across the country. The conference continues to grow each year.
Number of youth who volunteer/participate in community service
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
National Underage Drinking Prevention Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
SADD began to track youth engagement beginning in 2018. While these numbers are estimates, we hope to be able to better track reach in the years ahead.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The goals of SADD are simple, to work towards a day when there are zero preventable deaths of our nation's youth. SADD focuses on three core issue areas; Teen Traffic Safety, Substance Abuse, and Personal Health & Safety.
In 2016, SADD focused on expanding into the area of mental health to further understand what drives the decision-making process of our youth. With this new-found knowledge, better, more effective programs, toolkits, and campaigns will be developed to aid parents and teens in navigating the most difficult years.
The founding principle still stands today. Youth when empowered, will take the initiative to change their world for the better. At SADD, it's our goal to empower our nation's teens by providing them with the most effective tools, information, and prevention programming to address the critical issues of their time.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
1) Continue to monitor and identify emerging issues facing teens today.
2) Developing prevention programs utilizing evidence-based practices and offering them to every SADD chapter.
3) Supporting a national network of coordinators , affiliates, and chapters to conduct prevention programming in their communities.
4) Gain partnerships and supporters that help advance the mission and objectives of SADD.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
SADD has been the nation's premier youth health & safety organization for almost four decades. SADD has a rich history of success in creating effective programs and awareness campaigns on critical youth health & safety issues. Our partnerships with state and federal funding agencies is strong and increasing each year. SADD has an ever-growing network of chapters in schools and community organizations in all fifty states and the US territories. Our Board of Directors and staff have a wide range of expertise in finance, business, traffic safety, marketing/communications, and in the fields of prevention, adolescent medicine, and more that keep SADD on the front lines of the issues teens face.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The organization recently hired a new CEO to implement a new strategic vision.
In the past year, the organization has made great strides in setting a foundation to prepare the organization to take advantage of the many opportunities that present themselves.
This includes reorganizing the staff, putting internal controls and other policies in place to improve internal operations, renegotiating contracts, implementing new technologies, refreshing all marketing materials and creating intentional marketing and development plans. In addition, SADD launched three core campaigns that all chapters are encouraged to do at the same time each year in order to have a national voice. In October, chapters are encouraged to do the "Rock the Belt" program to bring awareness and behavior change in seat belt usage. February chapters did "SADD Shines" a week of activities focusing on mentorship and highlighting the value that SADD chapters bring to their communities and finally, in April chapters tuned in online to the SADD National Symposium on Teen Substance Abuse and others conducted a social media campaign called BUZZCHECK to prevent underage drinking.
SADD also launched its new Symposium Series. Three symposiums were conducted in our nation's capital and at the SADD National Conference on Youth Health & Safety. The symposiums bring together the nation's experts in Traffic Safety, Substance Abuse and Mental Health to discuss the emerging issues and highlight federal priorities in regards to these issues and to discuss ways to address them using a collaborative approach leveraging all resources available.
Developing evidence-based programming for all issues areas is a longer-term goal for SADD. The focus on substance abuse and mental health issues are a new focus point for SADD and the organization will continue to create campaigns and programs for SADD chapters to utilize throughout the year.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
SADD, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 11/10/2020
Mr. Dave Bollheimer
Ms. Angie Byrne
US Department of Transportation, Volpe Center
Term: 2020 - 2021
Michelle Anderson
The National Road Safety Foundation
Rick Birt
President & CEO, SADD
Sam Bivens
JP Chase Morgan
Dave Bollheimer
Isabelle Boullier
National Student President
Angie Byrne
US DOT, Volpe Center
Kathryn Curtis
Georgia, Governor's Office of Highway Safety
Carlos DeBrito
Cox Automative
Dan Fitzgerald
American Lung Association
Ryan Fraase
Engage Digital Consulting
Shelly Gregory
Zach Kashman
SADD Alumn, College Student
Lindsay Komlanc
The Ohio State University
Allyson Lumpkin
Greenberg, Trauir, LLC.
Maree Magliocchetti
Bank of America
Dylan Mullins
SADD Alumn, College Student
Kelly Nantel
Transportation Consultant
Kelly Nantel
National Safety Council
Kelly Nantel
National Safety Council
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/10/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.