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IRVING, TX and BOSTON - November 6, 2002 - Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the national non-profit organization working to stop drunk driving, serve its victims and prevent underage drinking, and Outside The Classroom, Inc., the creators of an online alcohol education course utilized by more than 300 universities, today announced a partnership to co-develop online alcohol prevention programs for youth alcohol offenders and teenage drivers in the U.S.
Alcohol is the No. 1 drug problem among young people in America. Last year in the U.S., more than 17,000 people, including youth, were killed in crashes involving alcohol accounting for 41 percent of all traffic deaths. While young drivers make up 6.9 percent of the total driving population, they constitute 13 percent of the alcohol-involved drivers in fatal crashes.
Due to the growing number of "first-time" youth alcohol offenders, many states are unable to provide every offender with mandated alcohol education. By leveraging the accessibility and cost-effectiveness of the Internet, MADD and Outside The Classroom's online prevention program will enable states to supply all young offenders necessary alcohol prevention education.
Additionally, MADD and Outside The Classroom are working together to encourage policy change by offering states the opportunity to incorporate alcohol education as part of their existing driver's education courses. The online courses for teen drivers and youth offenders of the Internet generation are highly customizable. Programs for each state incorporate state-specific statistics, stories and legislation to bolster the reach and effectiveness of the online program.
"MADD is a firm believer in prevention. I am confident that an online alcohol prevention program will be a powerful tool in educating youth with the hard facts about alcohol," said MADD National President Wendy J. Hamilton. "It is our hope this program will deter youth offenders and teen drivers from making illegal, unhealthy and potentially dangerous choices."
The alliance between MADD and Outside The Classroom brings together two organizations committed to changing alcohol policy. In the past 22 years, MADD has played a significant role in raising the nation's awareness and altering behaviors regarding alcohol by establishing key federal legislation such as the national 21 minimum drinking age law and .08 legal blood alcohol limit law. Prior to the introduction of Outside The Classroom's AlcoholEdu course, not a single university in the U.S. mandated alcohol education for their incoming classes. Now, more than 35 universities have done so for their entire incoming freshman classes. In fact, more than 100,000 students at over 300 institutions have participated in AlcoholEdu over the past year, making it the most widely used course on the Internet.
"We're eager to work with MADD to extend the benefits of AlcoholEdu beyond college campuses and help educate a larger number of young people about the physical effects and broader implications of alcohol consumption," said Brandon Busteed, founder and CEO of Outside The Classroom. "Imagine teens receiving alcohol education before they ever receive their driver's license, before they ever go to college. That kind of prevention implemented at the state level will protect youth and prevent future tragedies across the nation."
AlcoholEdu is an online course that students take in the privacy of their dorm rooms. Presenting valuable information in a non-opinionated format about the medical and social affects of drinking, the course empowers students to make more informed decisions. The program bases its instruction on interdisciplinary applications of alcohol to brain science, sociology, history and mathematics. More than half of the 20 top-ranked universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report list of leading American colleges have signed on to deliver AlcoholEdu to their students, including Dartmouth, Northwestern, Duke, Tufts, Villanova and the University of Connecticut.
About MADD
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (www.madd.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, grassroots organization with approximately 600 chapters and two million supporters and members nationwide. MADD's mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. Since MADD's founding in 1980, alcohol-related traffic deaths have decreased by more than 40 percent, thousands of victims and survivors have been served and programs have been launched across the country to educate young people about the dangers of alcohol.
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