Helping young people stay substance free isn’t always as simple as telling them to “just say no.” Students may face pressure from friends, classmates, and even family members—and sometimes they need a practical reason to protect the choice they already want to make.
In this episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour, Jake White talks with Angie Ferguson and Dave Huggins from Drug Free Clubs of America (DFCA) about how their voluntary program combines drug testing, positive incentives, peer support, and student-led activities to help young people confidently choose to stay drug free.
Dave and Angie share what they’ve learned from working with schools, how students use the phrase “I can’t, I might get tested” as a refusal strategy, why visibility and social proof matter in prevention, and what independent evaluations have shown about the program’s impact.
Key Takeaways
- Students are more confident saying no when they have an easy reason
- Voluntary accountability can support healthy choices
- Peer visibility helps show students they’re not alone
- Student-led rewards and events strengthen school culture
- Drug testing can be supportive rather than punitive
- Strong prevention programs give students community, confidence, and choice
Introduction to Drug Free Clubs of America
Jake White: Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour. I’m your host, Jake White, and today we’ve got a special episode because we are bringing back one of our guests we had a couple years ago. It was an incredible episode, and we’ve added another layer to the cake. So we’ve had Angie Ferguson from Drug Free Clubs of America welcoming her back. And then Dave Huggins is their program development specialist. And so we’re gonna hear some incredible stories of youth led programming, how to give students the ability to say no and protect that boundary, even when their friends or other adults might be using.
Give them a strong reason to say no. So Dave and Angie, welcome back to the Drug Prevention Power Hour.
Dave Huggins: Thanks, Jake, for sure you have.
Angie Ferguson: Great to be here.
Jake White: Absolutely. So first of all, Angie has said, hey, you know what? They’ve heard from me. Just pipe in if you need me. So let’s get to know Dave a little bit. Dave, will you just go ahead and share how did you get involved with Drug Free Clubs of America? And then just kind of tell us what it is too, in case someone hasn’t caught Angie’s episode before.
Understanding the Framework of Drug Free Clubs
Dave Huggins: Yep, so I heard the words Drug Free Clubs of America the first time on July thirtieth, twenty fifteen. I was in a rotary meeting. And I’ll be honest with you, my first thought was so what kind of a dorky kid joins a drug prevention program and why would you do that?
Angie Ferguson: Typical football generally.
Jake White: This guy.
Dave Huggins: So just trying to understand like, you know, what that looked like. And then I started to learn about these in school rewards and perks within the community and trying to make that like the cool thing that kids wanted to be a part of. And that made sense. I’m a father. I have interestingly enough, I’ve been around eleven years. So my kids were little at the time and now I have a daughter in college, but it made a lot of sense to me if you wanted to make an impact in the drug epidemic that we’re facing, that you would influence kids because they’re drug free to begin with. Let’s find a way to keep them.
The Role of Drug Testing in Prevention
Dave Huggins: One of the things that was super interesting to me and totally changed my mindset was when we first started, and you know, we have this drug testing component, so every single student takes a drug test to prove that they’re drug free. They’re then subject to five other random drug tests throughout the school year, and we test at the rate of 25% for the year. So 5% each time doing randoms, and that helps students have an out to be able to say, I can’t, I might get tested.
So if you go back to the 2016 school year when we implemented this into eight schools at one time here in Ross County, Ohio, my initial thought was that, well, I guess if we have 70% of the students passing, that’s really good. And what we found, and this has been a tradition for just about every Drug Free Clubs of America school that we’ve ever been to, is 99.5% of these kids test negative for any kind of street drugs or prescription drug abuse. And so what I started to change. It is awesome. And where that like changed my perception from that first day that I heard about this program is that I don’t really think kids want to do drugs. I think that they respect that the dangers that exist. They respect that unknown, that they don’t want to get involved with it.
And unfortunately in today’s society, many of them have parents or family members who’ve gone down that road and they don’t want anything to do with it. And so, that idea of seventy percent or quote, what kind of dorky kid joins a drug prevention has been totally turned on its ear and I was totally wrong from the beginning.
Jake White: Wow. I’m glad you said that, Dave. That I think the perception has changed because I remember feeling that way too of like, am I gonna be left out or am I the outsider? And this generation is changing that narrative because they care so much about impacting the world and protecting their health and doing good things while they have time here on earth. And it’s like, yeah, the word cool has changed in definition on what that actually means. It’s incredible.
Dave Huggins: They get a bad rap, and our media or the stories that we hear of the negative things sometimes unfortunately outweigh all the good things that are happening within our schools and with these kids. So I mean, like here in my local area, like I said, we at the Buck Fifty support 15 schools. That’s about 2100 kids times 25%. You know, we’re doing like 2,600 drug tests in a school year.
Like that is a tremendous amount of testing and a tremendous amount of data at 99.5% being negative to say, hey, these kids aren’t doing drugs. They want to be drug-free. They just need a group like us. And when I say us, I mean you, Jake, to support them to do the right thing. And they will.
Engaging Students in Drug-Free Initiatives
Jake White: Yeah. Well that’s it, right? Is making a good choice feels like, what an easy decision. But if you don’t have community, if you don’t have accountability, if you don’t have an outlet, it’s not an easy decision. So you’re making it a little bit easier. And I’m gonna preface this because those of you who are listening, I’ve had two reactions to the term drug testing. And so what I know is this is the student’s choice, they opt into the program.
And they say, yes, drug test me, which I think is very brave. They’re like, I want accountability.
Jake White: So as we talk about this in prevention, we’ll get a couple different thoughts about drug testing. And that’s why I wanted Angie here. So after we tell some stories, stick around because Angie, I’m gonna have her address this exact thing for the people that say we should not be drug testing students. Angie, I want you to address specifically that. But before we do, Dave, tell me about the other parts of this club because it’s not just opting in for a test once a year. There’s a platform built around it. There’s incentives. Like what does that look like?
Dave Huggins: So you’re right, it is a hundred percent a voluntary program. So it doesn’t matter like how smart you are, if you play sports, if you’re in the band, drama, if you like to hunt or fish, whatever you are as a student in your school, you can be a part of Drug Free Clubs America.
So one of the super cool things on test day is when that big group of students comes down to typically like a gymnasium to do drug testing where you’re testing hundreds of kids on a particular day. We now have the chance for these students to interact with each other in a way they might not otherwise do so. So, you know, if you’re on the volleyball team or you’re in the band, well, you’re kind of talking to those kids in those groups, but with DFCA, we’re able to kind of bring those kids in a harmonious way.
And they start to look around and they’re like, Jake’s in the club. Angie’s in the club. You know, my friend Sam is in the club. All this thing starts to create some synergy. And there really kind of become some funny stories about drug testing. And you know, we as adults can pretty much pee on command whenever we need to. But when you’re a teenage kid—
Dave Huggins: That doesn’t really happen. So you know, they’re chugging water, they’re doing dances, they’re listening to music. I’ve been to schools where they have a little waterfall close to the restroom so kids, you know, can get the urge to go.
Dave Huggins: And then they get, like the first thing they do is on initial test day, they get a bag of goodies with chips and candy bars and cookies. And so, you know, that’s kind of their first attaboy that, you know, hey, you’re doing good things, and then they get that same candy bar whenever they’re doing random. So when we show up on a random test day, there’s a line, and you’ll see students maybe walk down the hallway like, hey, can I test today? Can I test?
Jake White: That is funny.
Dave Huggins: But the real dynamic of it is it’s working because these kids are proud of who they are. They want to prove that they’re drug free. And then we even have these stories that pop up pretty often where a student gets called down for a random and they’re excited about that.
And you’re like, you know, Dave, why are you excited about being here for a random? Well, I was at a place on Friday night, and some friends offered me something, and I said I can’t, I might get tested, and boom, here I am. So I can tell my friends, see, I was right.
Jake White: That’s cool. That’s cool.
Dave Huggins: So you know, I know students who literally pick their friends based on who’s in DFCA. Many of the schools that I work with have over 50% enrollment, so it’s definitely a majority situation.
The Power of Social Proof in Drug-Free Choices
Jake White: That’s very cool.
Dave Huggins: I probably have two or three schools that are in that seventy or eighty percent category of being enrolled in DFCA. So it’s like you’re almost like the outcast if you’re not in the club.
Jake White: That’s a very neat shift because the students’ perception around the country is everyone else is doing it. So you’re able to show in a real way everyone is not. And I love that because something we talk about at Vive18 is turning social norms into social proof. Is hey, social norm? I heard the message that my peers are making good choices, but everyone’s being pretty loud about partying and trying these things.
The people who aren’t using it usually aren’t talking about it. So your platform gives that social proof that you’re not alone. I wanna ask, I’m gonna cue Angie in here real quick. Angie, can you tell me, apart from the test day, what are some of the incentives that you’ve heard students talk about the most that they get excited about as being part of the club and why it’s maybe fun or beneficial to be a part of it?
Incentives and Rewards for Drug-Free Participation
Angie Ferguson: Sure. The interesting thing about the rewards is when we first started this back in 2005, we thought, okay, we want students to choose to be in this program, and we need to give them a reason why they would choose to do it. So incentivize it, right? And we just thought they’d be attractive to the fun stuff.
What we didn’t realize was very much what you were just saying about social proof. If you think about the visibility of choosing to be drug free, it’s an incredibly hard thing to accomplish. You can’t see the choice not to use until that person choosing not to use gets to cut to the front of the lunch line. Or until they get out of class five minutes early to get their car out of the parking lot to beat the rush.
Angie Ferguson: Or until, like in Dave’s area, they have a rally where all of the schools in their community get together at the local park, they leave school, they hop on the buses. I’ll let Dave has a lot to be proud of with that rally, so I’ll let him tell you more of the details. But an incredibly visible, powerful day of proving that everybody is not using far exceeded our original scheme of why we would do these incentives, right?
Jake White: Yeah.
Angie Ferguson: As we’re thinking of the reward credit cards that you have in your pocket and how motivating it is for you to use that credit card because you get those rewards, right? Like so you would join this program because you get those rewards. Right now we do have a mobile app where there are over a million rewards all over the country that are accessible through this mobile app.
And all you do, and any member can access any of the rewards in any community. It’s not just, you know, you’re in Arizona, so you can only get the rewards in your community. If you travel for sports, you can go to the B-dubs nearby and get whatever the reward is. Usually it’s like buy one, get one free situation.
More powerful than that though, are a lot like you were talking about with your teenagers who are involved with Vive18, there are groups of ambassadors who put together in-school rewards. And those are events like some of the things I just mentioned. Those are by far hands down the most powerful rewards, the ones that are dreamed up by teenagers, that are executed by teenagers, that are reported on to their school board, to their administrators. Like look at this awesome stuff that we came up with and we did. So the incentives are not only the reason why somebody can say, I joined for the pizza party, but they’re also the thing that make it easy for that teenager to continue to say no because they can see how many other people are at that pizza party. And to Dave’s point, start to form friendships with those people where they know that it’s going to be absolutely fine to choose not to drink, to choose not to use.
Student-Led Initiatives and Community Engagement
Jake White: Yep, absolutely. And let’s, Dave, if I can ask you, if there’s a story in your mind about, you know what, I was so inspired, or, you know, I remember this story because the students took our idea of, you know, this club and there was accountability built in, but they took it to another level by having some sort of event or maybe some sort of initiative that was grown out of this initiative, but the students really took ownership and made something else happen. Does something come to your mind when I ask that?
Dave Huggins: Angie kind of mentioned the rally which we host each fall here in Chillicothe, and we invite any of the local schools in Southern Ohio to come. We typically have around 2,000 kids attend that event. And basically we give each school an opportunity to talk about what they like about the club, some facts or statistics, and then there’s usually some kids that will stand up there and speak and they’ll tell their story about how this was in their family.
And probably we had a gal named Haley Bain. She’s graduated and she’s doing great things as, you know, as she has grown up. That’s been fun to see. But, you know, she spoke one year and told some really heartfelt stories. And then the next year, Haley’s standing backstage, and a girl from another school gets up and speaks and tells kind of a similar heart-wrenching story. And after she gets done speaking, she walks backstage and she looks at Haley and says, thank you for telling your story because it gave me the courage to tell mine.
So it’s kinda like, you know, that’s, you know, to me, you get all the cool kids together doing the right things and you kind of create something pretty powerful.
Jake White: Yeah, that’s it. A platform to share their voice and feel heard and then therefore other people know they’re not alone. That’s so cool. I love that.
Dave Huggins: Yeah, we don’t—and rally day, we don’t really have outside speakers or adults. We really just kind of turn it over to the kids and let them own it. And they kind of traditionally talk about year after year that’s the favorite event that they have of the year. They get to see their friends. You know, my favorite thing is the freshman coming in the door to experience that for the first time or a new school walking, you know, with that mass of kids all doing the right thing, chanting. We buy them T-shirts, so they’re all wearing the same colored shirts. And it’s a pretty special day that we have. We always host it the last Friday in October.
Understanding Drug Testing in Prevention Programs
Jake White: That’s—that sounds incredible. That’s really, really cool. Well, I want to pivot to something that—the question I get asked quite a bit. So when it comes to drug testing as a major function of this club and how it operates and sort of the incentives and everything that’s built around it, Angie, for that person who’s in prevention, or maybe they came from the recovery field or they’re adjacent to prevention and they say, I don’t think that drug testing is good or safe or how it should fit into this. How do you talk about that for people who have that question to you?
Angie Ferguson: I think the most important thing with this topic is to approach it from a perspective of understanding where they’re coming from based on the history of drug testing. Because we do things very differently than the way it’s been done in the past, which is why it’s exciting to schools and to teenagers.
The drug test itself is simply the device. The device itself can be used in several different ways. Traditionally the problems have been that it’s been used in a punitive way. It’s been used heavy-handed, it’s been mandated, it hasn’t been a choice for the students, it hasn’t been a tool for them to rely on. It’s been an instrument of catching them. And usually followed by punishment.
That is not how we use it. We use the tool in a very different way.
In Drug Free Clubs, the test is a device that is chosen by teenagers to help them escape drug-related situations by simply saying, I can’t because I get tested. And once a teenager can sort of deploy that excuse and say, I simply can’t, it also communicates, I’m not choosing the moral high road over you because you’re probably a friend who just offered to share with me.
Or at least maybe a coworker, somebody that I’ve chosen to be around or found myself around. Maybe it’s a family member, could be a cousin, any number of scenarios why it could be very challenging to say, you know, I’m just, it’s just not for me. We want them to say that. We want them to have that power and that character building moment.
If not, we want to be sure they have the ability to say, hey, I get drug tested, I’m a part of this club, it looks awesome on my resume. I love the pizza parties that I get. I go to the rally. I just can’t do that, man. And it’s their out.
When I was in school, I remember my mom telling me that if anybody offered me cigarettes, tell them you’re allergic. Right? I just can’t. I just can’t. I’m allergic.
Angie Ferguson: Same thing. I just can’t. I get tested. And that has been done in the mandatory model.
The biggest difference with Drug Free Clubs is that the schools don’t get our results. They go to the parents. There’s no punishments associated with it. Even when a substance is found, we just have a conversation with the parent and with the student about it.
If the student wants to talk about it, if not with the parent, make sure there’s a clarity. We have a school counselor on staff who has follow-up conversations with parents personally.
So unless they choose, they as the parent, unless the parent chooses to reach out to the school, the school’s not gonna know. That’s really interesting because then the perception from the parent shifts from, my gosh, who knows? I’m gonna defend my child and find out what’s on their permanent record. You know, they’re worried about reputation until you tell them, nobody knows except for us. This is a health concern. This is a future challenge. Then their perception changes and they’re like, okay, what do I do? That’s when we get to the moment of action, which is really what it’s all about, instead of just defending what the damage could possibly be.
There is no damage with our model. It is all lifting the students up, giving them the tools to choose to stay drug free, and also allowing them to see the other students who are making that same choice so they can surround themselves with.
Building Trust Through Accountability
Jake White: Okay, that’s cool. Yeah.
Dave Huggins: Jake, I got time in about drug testing. So to me, it’s like where the rubber meets the road. Like if you’re using and you have a drug test in front of you that you know you can’t pass, that’s when conversations happen.
And every school that I’ve ever dealt with, it never happens in the first year. It’ll probably happen by year three, where when we do initial testing day, there’ll be a student who walks up to the school coordinator and have a very frank conversation, say, look, I can’t pass this test. I’ve been smoking weed. I know it’s not the right thing. I want to keep—I want to join this club and keep myself accountable. What do I need to do to join the club?
And to me, that’s like the most beautiful thing ever because the student now trusts the school. The teacher trusts the student. And we simply just, you know, have a conversation with mom and dad. Johnny can’t take the test today. We’ll test them on the next random day.
And, like, that is such a rewarding thing with the program that students, you know, trust us and, you know, it’s a mechanism that they use to keep themselves accountable.
Angie Ferguson: Not only that, this is a really interesting thing that happened just a few years ago. So along those lines, a student came down, it was a test day, a student came down and said, I’m not gonna pass this test, but I want to be in this program. He had smoked with his dad.
And he said, when I go to my dad’s on the weekends, that’s something that we do together. I don’t want to anymore. I don’t want to. And he said, I’m joining this because I then can tell my dad that example I gave before about the resume. He was doing it so that’s what he could tell his dad was, I joined this club, I’m gonna get tested, I can’t do that anymore.
You know, it’s for my—it’s so that I can have it on my college applications. And so people will challenge one thing with Drug Free Clubs, how we say we talk to the parents. Well, what if the parents aren’t doing the right thing? Well, even more reason because they’re surrounded by an environment where use is a regular thing.
Angie Ferguson: And maybe that’s the thing for the parents, but certainly it’s not for the 16-year-old developing brain. And just because the parents might choose to use something doesn’t mean that they want their student to use. That’s a misconception we come across also. And a lot of times they really appreciate that this is in place. So for a teenager to have the tool to say to their father, that, see they have, you know, shared custody. I was at my dad’s house. We do this as a bonding thing. Hey, we can still hang out. I just can’t do that with you anymore. What else are they going to do in that scenario, if not for Drug Free Clubs, you know?
Jake White: That’s so powerful. And I think of the moments that you both described of a student telling the staff that day, right? Hey, I’m not going to pass this test. What a positive experience of, you know, being accountable to something where you made the decision to say it instead of, for example, being caught.
So it’s just another checkpoint on their journey of adolescence to check in. To see, hey, am I doing the things that I want to be doing? Or did I make a mistake? But now it’s another place to kind of turn around and try it again.
And without those checkpoints, it can be harder to find that. You might go an entire high school career or middle school career and someone hasn’t asked you a pointed question. Hey, have you been using substances? Do you need help with this? And so I do see the value of that. It sounds really cool. And to your point, man, that parent story that breaks my heart, but is such a powerful example of, man, if it can give you the ammunition to stand up to your own family and feel good about it, wow, that’s incredible. Yes.
Angie Ferguson: Yeah. Without being divisive, without causing an awkwardness or a disconnect, because clearly this young man wants to have a bond with his parent, you know, but how do you do that? And this same scenario plays out in everyday life with siblings, with cousins, with any number of people that you want to impress.
Jake White: Yeah. Well, we work with students all over the country and that is a very, very common things that the students talk about is hey, no, my parents are using every day. I don’t know what to say or I don’t know how to be different. And they might not be using at the point, but they feel the pressure and they know there’s gonna be a time that comes where they’ll have to actually stand up and say no to their own family.
Jake White: And therefore it makes it—it gives you an opportunity then to talk about it. So thank you for answering that question. That’s super fascinating.
Data-Driven Insights and Program Impact
Jake White: Are there any other data points that you can share with people? So if someone is saying, hey, I want Drug Free Clubs of America, I think this platform sounds really cool. Are there a couple of data points that you like to share as well as the impact of the club?
Angie Ferguson: Let Dave say what stands out most to him about our data, but I will say one thing before that, and just for the preventionists out there who might be listening, I know in our field it’s incredibly challenging to prove what didn’t happen. Getting metrics in prevention is so hard.
And we have been through three independent rounds of evaluation. We were granted money to be able to hire third-party researchers who evaluated our impact, our strategy, our model, all kinds of stuff. So just so you know, we do have independent proof of all the things that we’re saying. But from that data, I’m curious to hear from Dave, what do you like the best about our outcomes and our approach?
Dave Huggins: Well, I think it’s super simple and most people overcomplicate most things in our lives in that if you can just save one kid’s life, it’s worth it. And in a world where we wear seatbelts every single day driving up and down the road, why would we not take prevention as seriously when it comes to drug use and enact a program that supports our youth to, you know, stay drug free in a really peer pressure environment?
I mean, I didn’t grow up with social media, but I understand that that is a crazy world for our teens to live in. So what a great way to support them in a program where we show we care about them. We’re not here to be punitive.
But to me, you know, 99.5% tests being negative, you start getting 50% enrollment in your schools. You see the letters that students write in appreciation for a program like this. And you know, Jake, you mentioned it before with family members. You know, I know a gal who mom and dad sisters all used and she really used this word. I didn’t know that I had a choice.
Angie Ferguson: To stay drug free.
Dave Huggins: And so when, you know, DFCA came around, this was an avenue that she could make a stand for herself and say, you know, I’m gonna be different than everyone else because I’ve seen this turmoil.
But really, even, you know, even the kids who are blessed to grow up in a household with loving parents and not be affected by drugs, this program really opens up doors that they start to see and it, you know, allows conversations to happen that otherwise wouldn’t happen.
So they start to become more appreciative of, you know, where they’ve been, how they’re raised, and maybe what some of their classmates are going through.
Angie Ferguson: Yeah. I think for me, when we did our evaluation, we had already been running Drug Free Clubs for over a decade when we started doing the actual hand over the data, do the evaluation. We gathered data for four years and that was all—it was over 40,000 responses that were all evaluated over the course of those years.
And I’ll tell you what, when we did that, when I handed over, like, look, here’s the username and password to the data, I don’t think I slept. I’m like, because when I was seeking the funding for it, the gentleman who graciously awarded us the funding, he was like, Angie, I don’t get many people asking me for funding wanting to be evaluated. Usually I’m the one saying you have to do an evaluation if you want money. And so it was like, what are you gonna do if this doesn’t come back positively? There’s no guarantees here. And I was like, I know. I said, we’re gonna pivot, right? If it’s not working, I’m not out here to just spend money for no reason.
Angie Ferguson: And it was interesting because the researchers decided for themselves what questions they were gonna ask, how they were gonna evaluate it. And when they came back to us and they had discovered that over the course of those years that they were evaluating, they looked at schools that had the club for all four years, and the first year of our surveys was the first year of the club.
So, in the first four years, what happened? They identified that students had fewer offers because they’re seen going to the front of the lunch line. They are seen getting their car out of the parking lot. So the students who used to offer them stuff don’t even offer it anymore because they know they’re getting tested. So their number of offers were reduced. Their number of drug-free friends around them increased because they were able to identify. So hard facts saying my social circle is more drug and alcohol free. I experienced fewer offers. We had students there was a drastic increase in the students who said, I relied on Drug Free Clubs to help me stay drug free from year one to year four. That increased consistently each year, meaning they’re getting offers, they’re relying on the strategy to help them stay drug free.
And one thing that I hoped would be true that did come through in the data is the confidence that students have when they go into a drug-related situation, knowing that they know how to handle it, that gut-wrenching feeling like, I don’t know what I’m walking into at this event tonight, at this party. They know that they can handle it because they’ve got this in their back pocket and they probably have some peers around them that are in this club too, because they can see them being drug free. Those are my favorite data points.
Jake White: Yeah, that’s it. And that confidence, yeah, it’s like how important the confidence and communication skills to do it. And if this club is serving those two things well, as well as them getting less offers because now they’re having less friction with their decision that to me is incredible. I remember when I was throwing our sober parties and events. People were asking, like, well, how are you decreasing drug use? Or like, how do you know they don’t go drink afterwards?
And I’m like, okay, hold on. Was there an opportunity for them to have drug-free fun before? If the answer was no. I’m getting 250 or more students to take advantage of drug-free fun now. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Okay, that’s a good thing. And then we have to eventually find out how we’re gonna measure this.
So I’m with you guys. We’ve done an independent evaluator the last couple of years. Cause I’m like, I just have to learn about this so that we can continue to improve. And this year approached the university to say, hey, what’s the next steps? Because we just at least want to speak to what is this program really good at? What’s our niche within the prevention spectrum and where do we fit? And it sounds like developing these really cool refusal skills, having community and confidence in your decision, at the very least, is a strength of your program, Drug Free Clubs of America.
Getting Involved With Drug Free Clubs of America
Jake White: So if people want to use it right now, how does that work? Do they get in contact with you? Where do they go?
Dave Huggins: They can call me at or email me at Dave H at drugfreeclubs.com or call me at 513-317-1631 and I’d be happy to walk them through the program, explain to them how all the different facets work, what components we need.
And the cool thing for them is I was them 11 years ago learning about this program and, you know, I’ve helped fund over a million dollars worth of kids through the program. So I’m definitely vested and believe in it. And, you know, to the naysayers out there who want to come up with one-offs that may or may not matter, I live in this theory. Do something, even if it’s wrong, because in most cases.
Dave Huggins: Nothing happens and there’s no program anywhere to help them. We leave them out there on their own. So let’s just say that Vive18 isn’t perfect or DFCA isn’t perfect, which none of us are, all of those answers are ten times better than nothing.
Jake White: Yeah. And it’s like, hey, we’re not the only two programs on the earth. Do something. Like you said, do something. You can’t complain about like the options out there, but then just not do anything. That doesn’t help anybody either.
Dave Huggins: I had a guy from time.
Angie Ferguson: Yeah, I understand the-go ahead, Dave.
Dave Huggins: I had a guy, I was in a meeting one time and I was talking about a school that or an area, like in our area, one time we were at seventy percent enrollment and some people were kind of screwing me down about this thirty percent and what I was doing about it. And I was, I’m like, I’m not doing anything about it. Like I’ve got seventy percent enrolled.
Angie Ferguson: County of the county. Yes.
Dave Huggins: name me a group or entity that has that involvement that volunteers to do it. Because I don’t know that ever is going to exist. So let’s just be thankful that where we’re at and, you know, those kids are being influenced. They’re hearing their friends and whether they join or not’s up to them.
If it’s mandatory, it’s a different decision that doesn’t work as well as voluntary because if I decide that I want to join with my friend Jake, well now we’re committed to it. But if it’s mandatory and we have to do it, that’s a completely different, you know, psychological philosophy.
Jake White: Yeah. That’s big.
Building a Positive School Culture
Angie Ferguson: Right. And one of the things, yeah, one of the things also that came up when the researchers were going through is they identified the positive impact to the school culture as a whole.
You can’t if you envision this rolling out in a school day where there are students who are getting these rewards, where there’s this fun stuff going on, the students are coming back to the class and eating their goodies out of their goodie bag. There’s a positive influence to the school culture and everybody benefits from that.
So we do, even the 30% that don’t show up for drug test day, they still have the benefit of a more positive school culture.
Angie Ferguson: They will get our marketing materials in the beginning of the school year, which say on them to the parents, you are the most influential person in your child’s life right now, even though you probably don’t think you are.
If you just talk to them about this expectation about choosing to stay drug-free, you cut their risk of addiction in half. Half.
Angie Ferguson: Just by talking. So even if you don’t sign up for the program, letting the parents know the role that they have to continue that dialogue is just as important as, okay, let’s get as many kids as we can.
Jake White: That’s good. And I’m imagining, you know, the student who is, hey, they are using, they’re in high school or something and they’re thinking to themselves, well, if I stop, am I gonna have friends? Of course. You see all these people around school that are a part of DFCA, right?
Angie Ferguson: Good point. Yeah.
Jake White: You have fun? Well, shoot, those kids have fun. Am I gonna be able to deal with life’s challenges? Well, shoot, how does 70% of these people deal with their challenges? I’m sure they have them.
So it is just a positive force, like you said, on school culture and just that individual student who’s wondering, can I change though? Is it worth it? Can I do it? Do I have a choice?
So I love that we touched on all these different areas of, you know, the student experience. And so I just want to echo, get in touch with Dave if you’re curious about this, Dave H at drugfreeclubs.com. You can go to the website as well, drugfreeclubs.com, and you can see a bunch of resources, images, graphics, how it works, some statistics.
And then of course, Angie is your best friend. If you need to talk about data and that kind of stuff, because she speaks that language, we all need an Angie.
Angie Ferguson: The nerdy stuff.
Jake White: Exactly. So I just want to say thank you. In case you don’t get it enough, Dave and Angie, thank you for having the courage to build this program, to do something innovative and to, like I know what it takes to build a program.
Angie Ferguson: How you do?
Jake White: you for sticking it out, building a team, putting yourself there, and saying yes, research me. Cause if something needs to change, I want to change it. That’s brave. And that’s how we all should be working. So did I miss anything before we say goodbye?
Angie Ferguson: No, I just wanna make sure that there’s some gratitude extended back your way because you’ve been fighting the good fight with us for years as well. You stand in the face of some things and say, I’m gonna do it differently and so I’m just proud to be out here with you.
Jake White: Thank you. Thank you both. And that’s echoed for everyone listening to this. You’re in the field, you’re making a difference. Just tag us in if we need any support. We are super excited to support anyone who wants to empower youth to stay substance free. So we will see you all next Monday on another episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour.
Connect With Drug Free Clubs of America
Email: daveh@drugfreeclubs.com
Phone: 513-317-1631
Website: drugfreeclubs.com
