MADD Canada's Youth Program
Administrator: MADD Canada (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)
Sponsor: Allstate, LCBO, Fenora Textile, Hill Street Marketing, NB Liquor
Jurisdiction: local, provincial and national
Start date: 1989
Background: MADD Canada’s youth website posts the following information to contextualize its mission:
- Young people have the highest rates of traffic death and injury per capita among all age groups and the highest death rate per kilometer driven among all drivers under 75 years of age. More 19-year-olds die or are seriously injured than any other age group.
- Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 15 to 25 year olds, and alcohol is a factor in 50% of those crashes.
- 16-25 year olds constituted 13.7% of the population in 2008, but made up almost 33% of the alcohol-related traffic deaths.
MADD Canada is committed to working with youth to reduce impaired driving incidents, save lives, prevent injuries, and ensure our roads are safer.
Goal: MADD Canada created the youth website to support and assist victims and volunteers across Canada who want to do their part to put a stop to drug and alcohol-related crashes. Emphasis is placed on elementary, high school and university students, as well as their families, teachers and mentors. The website contains information about MADD Canada Youth awareness and education campaigns, and how young people can get involved.
Program and materials: MADD Canada’s Youth Program reaches 600,000 high school and 150,000 elementary students each year through its multimedia assembly presentations. The internet, radio and TV ads, posters, national contests, and bursaries are also used to reach out to every age group.
Specific examples include:
- School Assembly Program – Long Weekend: A powerful dramatization about the tragic consequences when a teen decides to drive impaired after partying at a summer cottage. The video ends with testimonials from real-life victims who share their heartbreaking stories with the audience. MADD Canada's School Assembly Program targets students in grades 7 through 12. By clicking the Long Weekend link above, you can view highlights of the video and learn how to book this program for your school.
- School Assembly Program – Damages: An on-screen fictional re-enactment of the consequences surrounding impaired driving. It is designed for Canadian students in grades 7-12. Damages is a hard hitting, emotionally charged fictional courtroom drama that revisits decisions the accused made one tragic night. It is reminiscent of stories that Canadian court rooms hear far too often. Damages concludes with victims sharing their very personal and devastating stories with the audience.
- Braking Point: A new classroom educational tool created by MADD Canada that targets – and portrays – 14 to 18 year-olds who use and abuse alcohol and marijuana. The educational package and accompanying DVD dramatize real situations of alcohol and marijuana use as well as the risks and consequences of heavy use and is available in English, French or Aboriginal versions.
- Youth statistics: A source of background information with youth-related statistics that illustrate characteristics of the drinking and driving problem with young people.
- R. Solomon and T. Bartley, A Guide to the Canadian Criminal Justice System for Victims of Impaired Driving. (Mississauga, Ontario: MADD Canada, June 2004).
- R. Solomon et al,. Automobile Insurance & Impaired Driving Across Canada: A MADD Canada Perspective. (Mississauga, Ontario: MADD Canada, 2004).
- R. Solomon et al., Alcohol, Teens And Catastrophe: What Every Parent Needs to Know About Avoiding Alcohol Liability, 2nd ed., (Oakville, Ontario: MADD Canada, 2006).
Contact:
MADD Canada
2010 Winston Park Drive Suite 500
Oakville, ON L6H 5R7
Phone: 1-905- 829-8805 or toll free 1-800-665-6233
Fax: 905-829-8860
Email: info@madd.ca
Website: www.madd.ca / www.maddyouth.ca
