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Our Mission: To stop impaired driving
and to support victims of this violent crime
Lives Changed Forever
Youth Impact Team

David Van Staalduinen, a former Director of Youth Services, conceived and designed an innovative concept to use young people to reach young people—The Youth Impact Team.

As we all know, individuals younger than 24 are more likely to be involved in impaired driving incidents than any other age group. London has decided to face this issue head on.

Our local chapter’s team has the following established annual goals: addressing youth in the local area in various forums; working with Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving clubs; and developing and implementing innovative new education and awareness campaigns to address youth impairment issues.

This program will work hand in hand with other London youth initiatives such as the high school assembly presentations, the multimedia production contest, and the elementary poster/essay contest. We look forward to putting our ideas into motion in the coming year and working with the London community to lessen the impact of impaired driving by young people.

Many thanks to David for this creative approach. We know it will grow and become a major part of the chapter’s efforts here in London.

Youth Services

MADD Canada’s work with youth is critical to our strategy to stop impaired driving. One in every eight deaths and injuries in road crashes is a teenager. Tragically, road crashes are the number one cause of death of youth age 15 to 19 in Canada and alcohol is involved 45% of the time. Recent statistics tell us that over two out of every five people who die in crashes involving alcohol are 24 years of age and under.

MADD London encourages the participation of today's young people in the fight against impaired driving. Through various local and national programs we invite them to have a voice in their community. We work with our young people in many ways to promote smart choices and positive behaviour. We sponsor local poster and essay contests, we will be participating in MADD Canada's 2009/2010 multimedia school assembly program Wasted and we are involved with London's SafeGrad committee.

 
Meet some of the Madd London Volunteer Board
Dave Pereira
President
Barbie Ferguson
Director of Volunteers
Christine Taleski
Director of Media Relations
Annette Pisciotto
Director of Fundraising
 
 

Wasted (see left) is geared towards students in grades 7-12 and is played across three giant screens. It is a bold and intensely emotional story of the lasting effects that one wrong decision can make. The show explores characters whose lives are catapulted into unforeseen situations in the aftermath of an impaired driving crash. The story follows Jake and his teenage friends as they get ready for a party to celebrate the school’s winning basketball game. Jake is a hero. They score some pot from a local dealer. They pay to have someone buy them beer. They all get wasted and head out to a party. They story follows the tragic consequences of these bad choices.

The presentation ends with powerful personal stories which are shared by courageous victims that show that alcohol and other drugs mixed with cars are a deadly cocktail.

Road Crashes, Impaired Driving and Canadian Youth

* Road crashes are the number one cause of teen death in Canada.

* One in eight deaths and injuries from road crashes is a teenager.

* 45% of teens killed on the road have been drinking.

* 20% of high school students in the last year drove after smoking cannabis.

* 1 out of the 4 Canadians killed is under the age of 24.

* 2 out of every 5 teens killed on the road have been drinking.

* On average, every day in Canada four people are killed and 207 are seriously injured from an impaired driving crash

Impaired driving is the number one PREVENTABLE cause of death among teens in Canada.

Quiz
 
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