What makes a youth prevention club successful isn’t just the campaigns, events, or activities—it’s the relationships, trust, and opportunities students are given to lead.
In this episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour, Jake White sits down with longtime educator and youth prevention advisor Kelly Prichard to talk about what she has learned from decades of working with teenagers and leading Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) clubs.
Kelly shares how she first became involved in youth prevention, what helped her club grow from a small group of passionate students to more than 30 members, and why having students from different friend groups can dramatically increase a prevention program’s reach.
The conversation also explores how advisors can build trust, set high expectations without expecting perfection, guide student ideas without taking over, develop meaningful fundraising strategies, and create experiences that transform the students themselves.
Key Takeaways
- Build genuine relationships with students before expecting engagement.
- Create a club that includes students from different friend groups and backgrounds.
- Consistency from adult advisors helps build trust and long-term participation.
- Give students meaningful opportunities to lead, take risks, and develop confidence.
- Set high expectations while recognizing that teenagers will make mistakes.
- Guide students through ideas instead of immediately taking control.
- Use creative fundraising opportunities that teach students practical skills.
- Build strong community relationships and show appreciation to supporters.
- Give students real ownership of projects, leadership roles, and prevention activities.
- Remember that even if a prevention club changes only a handful of students, that impact still matters.
Introduction and Connection
Jake White: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour. I’m your host, Jake White, and today I am hanging out now with a new friend. Actually, a friend I’ve known for a long time. Her name is Kelly Prichard.
And not only was she one of the first people that ever took a chance on me doing this prevention work, but she has led some of the most incredible youth prevention clubs I’ve seen just passionate students. She’s an amazing adult guide to these students. So I was really excited when she said yes to being on the show. So Kelly, welcome to the Drug Prevention Power Hour.
Kelly Prichard: Thank you. And I’m so glad you didn’t call me an old friend because, you know, that has a connotation. I am much older than you, but I feel like our hearts and our souls are on the same level here.
Jake White: Kelly, I don’t think I could keep up with you if I tried.
Kelly Prichard: I don’t think a lot of people can, but, you know, eventually I gotta start slowing down.
Jake White: Eventually. That’s one day way in the future.
Kelly Prichard: Yeah, and I really think it was fate that we met because the first time that I ever heard about you or saw you was like your first time out in the big world presenting your program. And it was like a perfect match right then.
Jake White: Yup. I remember maybe it was the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board that had brought me out to speak to everybody.
Kelly Prichard: That’s what it was. And to be honest, I’d been doing lots of prevention things in my community and in the world of SADD, but that was my first invite outside of the world of SADD to present to a whole bunch of other types of groups. So I think maybe we were just as nervous as you were.
Jake White: That would make sense.
Kelly’s Journey in Youth Prevention
Jake White: And how cool that that chance meeting—one of the first things I was invited to outside of my home state of Wisconsin. I didn’t even know I would become a speaker, but that put us together and we ended up going to Ohio.
So before we get into the nitty-gritty, my hope, Kelly—and I told you this before the call—you have been such an incredible resource for the students in your community.
You have led these SADD clubs, Students Against Destructive Decisions, at a level that I haven’t seen before. So for everyone listening, we are gonna learn from Kelly what she does to be so successful as a sponsor or advisor or whatever you call it.
But before we do that, Kelly, I really just wanna, number one, get people to know you, and then learn a little bit about—I don’t even know if I asked your origin story on how you first got involved in youth prevention clubs. But let’s just start with you. If you were meeting somebody new here on the show, what do you want us to know?
Kelly Prichard: I want you to know that my work with teenagers in this area of prevention has been my favorite part of teaching. I’ve got 27 years under my belt, and I’ve loved being a teacher. I am a teacher at heart. You can’t hardly meet me without me trying to teach you something.
Kelly Prichard: It’s a natural thing for me, but one of my most favorite parts has been this part, the prevention thing. And I never set out to do that because I was a health education person and I was an athletic trainer in college and I started out in health education.
And so what happened is, I’m a brand-new first-year teacher, and I think they just said, “Well, you’re teaching health, so the Just Say No Club is gonna be yours.” So that was—wasn’t that Nancy Reagan? Just Say No?
Kelly Prichard: Yeah. So that must have been in 1996, I think, was my first year teaching.
And so they said, “Here’s this club.” And what we had in our area was a tri-state yearly convention that broke out into groups in the schools, which was called IDA, which was Institute for Drug and Alcohol Awareness. And it was a middle school program.
So I gathered up my group, and I think I took 15 students to this conference, and it was wonderful. And I loved it. And I did IDA for four years at the middle school where I was teaching before I resigned to stay home and raise some kids.
But when I got back—and I guess I did it while I was home raising kids—I advised a program in the middle school where my kids went to school for a few years, maybe two or three years, before they found another advisor there to take over.
And so then when I was ready to go back into school, I changed my focus area from teaching health because that was starting to die off.
Kelly Prichard: The health classes weren’t—you couldn’t really just only do that. And I wasn’t a phys ed person. I just wanted to teach health, but I came back as an intervention specialist, so working with students with disabilities.
And my first year back in a school, the school lost five students in one year due to destructive decisions.
Kelly Prichard: So this boy brought me he just came in like this with this notebook and he said, “KP, can we do this?” And it was a SADD manual.
Kelly Prichard: And I was like, “Yes.” In fact, they didn’t know at the school that I was at, at Allen East, that I had experience in that area. I was brand new. I was brand new and I was just teaching something totally different.
And he just sensed, I guess, knew to come to me and bring this to me almost with tears in his eyes because he was so distraught about the condition of his school and what was happening with his friends. He just came to me with the manual and I said, “Yeah, we can do it.”
And so, you know, from that day forward, I think we started with maybe 12 students that first year, and it just grew from there.
The Impact of Student-Led Clubs
Jake White: Wow. Okay. That’s incredible. That’s so fun that he knew to go to you and that you had already developed a passion for that.
And just for our listeners too, Allen East is out in Ohio. Pretty rural community. Great people. I mean, being out there a couple of times myself, it’s so, so fun. And just the students are incredible.
There have been times, Kelly, over the years—I know sometimes in your club you’ve had upwards of 30 or more students that are involved in SADD. I’m sure there’s been times when it’s less or more.
I’m curious if you have any thoughts on how you tell when there’s more interest or less interest in a student body, or what was different about the years where you had more or less students among your tenure doing this?
Understanding Student Engagement
Kelly Prichard: Yeah. So it’s strange how the population will kind of wax and wane based on the culture. And at first it was, you know, we had a need. There was devastation. We had loss and students didn’t know what to do. So they wanted to be a part of something because they didn’t want to do nothing.
And the first year, the students that we had were really, really passionate. I didn’t have a ton of them because it was new and students didn’t know if they could trust something new or me, because I was pretty new.
And so the first couple years was maybe 12, and then we kind of grew to like 15, and then eventually I think my largest group was like 34, 35, and that was hard to manage.
But when you think about the student body and what I had, I had a larger percent of participation in my group based on class sizes than football. So I didn’t have more numbers, but when you think about percentages, I had so many kids involved in this program, and it was a lot to manage.
So need definitely changes the demand, and who you have in the program changes the demand.
So if you have really outgoing, ambitious people that the student body loves and they can trust, then that changes the culture in the team and then more people want to be a part of it because people they respect and like.
And that’s not necessarily linked to popularity. It kind of is. But having kids from different friend groups. So, you know, it’s great to have the football players and the cheerleaders.
But it’s also really great to have the gamers, and it’s really great to have the kids that don’t know where they fit. And it’s really great to have the quiet kids and then some of the really smart kids because each one of them has an opportunity to reach their own friend group.
So the wider variety of kids that you have, the better I believe you’re gonna have as far as an impact goes. Does that make sense?
Jake White: That’s so true. And I think that maybe every class—or you hope every class—has that chameleon. They’re like, “I can get into this group, this group, this group,” or they just kind of get along with everybody.
And that person is so valuable. Like you mentioned, it’s not that they’re popular or they’re the head person on the sports team or anything.
There’s probably somebody at your school right now, whoever’s listening to this, like there’s definitely one person or a couple that are like that.
And if we find out that they’re passionate about this cause, they would be really eager for the chance to grow the club. And you would be so lucky to have a student that’s like, “Great, yeah, let’s grow this thing. Everyone needs this information. I’ll go out and invite all my friends.” That’s like best-case scenario.
Kelly Prichard: Yeah, and there’s something in a person that their classmates can sense—that they’re genuine and real.
And you’re right, they might not be the most popular. They’re not this, they’re not that, but everybody likes them because they’re likable, they’re kind, and they haven’t bullied people and they don’t tell lies and they’re not a hypocrite.
Like, that’s the kid. That’s your kingpin. You need to get that kid.
The Role of Advisors in Student Clubs
Kelly Prichard: And I think the one other thing that makes a group like this sort of wax and wane would be your advisor.
So a lot of change hurts any program. When there’s a new person coming in, a new person coming in, a new person coming in because someone quits or they move away or they get fired or whatever it is—in any sports team or band or whatever—consistency, kids trust.
So if you’ve been there and you’re gonna stick with it and you’re gonna keep going, you know, I always told the kids, “I’m not going anywhere. No, I’m not getting tired of this. I love this. I love what I’m doing. I’m gonna be here.”
And they feel that. They can trust that.
So if it’s an advisor that they truly love, that gets things done, that they can rely on and they stay, they have that staying power. I think that’s really important for the longevity and the vitality of a group.
Jake White: That’s so big. I remember in the beginning when I was doing this work at Vive18, and even at your school, it was so fun because you had the student-led club.
So yes, we got to do a keynote presentation and speak to the whole school. But then getting to invest in your student leaders to know that they and you were going to live on campus, affect this community for years to come was, to me, like my favorite part of the job.
Just like the club was your favorite. Mine is also getting to invest in those clubs and spend more time learning what the gaps are in whether they’re leadership or event planning or do they know how to recruit people? It’s so, so important.
And if you’re listening to this, somebody who’s listening to the podcast and you’re in a coalition, the question might be this year, it might not be, “Hey, who can fill this position?” But it’s, “Who can fill this position and is gonna be here for three, four, or five years?”
Because somebody to come in and out, you do spend all that time and effort and training and relationship building and trust. And if they’re gonna be, you think, gone in a couple years and you already know that from the onset, maybe it’s worth spending another month asking people. Maybe it’s worth getting your ear to the ground and asking for more and more connections because you want to find your Kelly, right?
You want to find somebody who’s so passionate. They’re in the system. They know how things work. You’re well networked, all those things, and you have the right heart for it.
Creating a Supportive Environment
Kelly Prichard: Right. And the thing that you said reveals a lot about who you are as a presenter because, you know, I’ve been in this business a long time. I’ve seen a lot of keynote speakers. Some are really, really good and some are not so great.
But there’s not very many that want to come in and do their gig and get paid, but they want to stay and get to know the kids and they wanna train the kids so that when they leave, the impact isn’t over.
And that the impact continues on and that the change is going to be made in the community.
And for me, you’re the one. You wanted to—you stayed an extra time and trained just my kids so you could get to know them and you could teach them about your program because your program is so heavily reliant upon a good group of youth.
So you didn’t just come in my school to grab your paycheck and make a big impact on a school and then walk away. You came and you wanted to stay.
And so if you’re listening to this and you’re an advisor and you haven’t invited Jake and Vive18 to come out, I’m gonna highly recommend you do that because it is well worth it.
Like I said, I’ve seen a lot and I’ve heard a lot and a lot of them are really good with a large group, but you don’t have very many that are willing to invest in your youth and the longevity of the impact of his program.
Jake White: Thank you for that, Kelly. Y’all, I did not ask her to say that. That is so nice of you. That was a freebie.
Honestly, Kelly, that’s super important as we build our team. That’s been one of those things that we looked for. If we’re gonna train a new speaker, like fresh from scratch, or partner with somebody who’s already been doing this for a while, we found out that there is a special factor.
We want the people that are like, “Cool, I’m done with my presentation. I’m here for the day. Can I go have lunch with the students? Can I go play basketball in the gym with gym class or pickleball or whatever it is? Can I join them at recess?”
That’s the kind of stuff that I think truly makes a transformational experience. And it’s so cool because you go to a small town and the students look at you like you’re famous.
Which is so funny, but to them you are.
So our whole goal is to make them feel famous. Like, “Oh my gosh, they wanted to play with me and they wanted to play Foursquare and ask me about my art,” and all that stuff.
So it’s really cool to see that other people recognize that because as a culture within our team, that is such an important pillar of who we want to be for young people everywhere.
Whether it’s about prevention or mental health or kindness, how can we show them we’re doing what we’re preaching?
Kelly Prichard: Right. Yep.
Vulnerability and Risk in Student Activities
Jake White: So thank you for doing that. I want to pivot, Kelly, because we got to take advantage of your expertise. We got you on the show, and I know you’ve done so many cool projects.
You’ve been a great guide for the students. When I look at your clubs, I’m like, they’re not just meeting in a room to talk about stuff. They’re doing stuff.
So before we get into the meat and potatoes of, like, I’m gonna ask you some tips, what have been some of your fun highlights when you look back over the years? Whether it’s an event or a project, something that the students have taken on and completed that you’re like, “That’s pretty special.”
Kelly Prichard: I think the things that put them out there at risk and they’re still willing to do it.
And it might not be the hardest work. It might not have taken the most amount of hours. But you can take teen activities and you can put them on a scale of risk, which is, how much does this make them vulnerable?
So some activities, kids are really willing to do because there’s not a whole lot of vulnerability. They’ll write on a Post-it note and stick it on the wall and walk away.
But if you ask them to, say, dress up for a spirit dress day and feel different, and everyone notices there’s something different in what they’re wearing, that’s a high-risk activity that a lot of people don’t really think about.
Well, for years, because the model, the IDA model that I first started with, had a student-led group that facilitated the entire weekend. They would announce the rules with skits and then they did skits, and the skits had meaning.
Most of them weren’t just fun and silly to laugh at. They had a prevention meaning behind them. And some of those skits—I have a whole notebook full of them.
Then when I started doing this, my kids were like, “Well, can I write one?” And I’m like, “Yeah, let’s write some.” And I would have ideas and the kids would develop it, or they would have ideas and we would do that.
So to perform in front of your entire high school class, to me, is one of the highest-risk activities. And I had kids that did that.
And Jake, I would—I’ll do it now—I would sit there and watch them in amazement at the things they’re willing to do to help their classmates.
They would do a cardboard testimony. And I had a boy one time who, on his card, he said he brought a gun to school.
And then you flip it over and they have a victory on the back. And I don’t recall exactly what he said. I don’t recall.
But there were kids that would reveal in front of their whole student body that they were cutters, that they struggled with suicide, depression, that they were bullied and made fun of, and things like that.
So when they were willing to be that vulnerable in front of their peers, number one, that does a big thing with their classmates. It shows them how much they actually care.
And number two, you realize they really care because they’re willing to do those things.
So those are the kinds of things that I’m the most proud of when they’re willing to do things like that.
Celebrating Student Achievements
Jake White: Yeah. Wow, I’ve never thought of it like that and put it into those words, but you’re totally right.
There’s a level of risk, and getting in front of your entire student body and being vulnerable, that’s like the highest.
In my mind, it’s like your peers on the same exact grade as you, maybe even older than you, are gonna be listening to your story and knowing you’re trying to be a good influence on them.
That’s something, as an adult, there are times when I walk into a high school and I’m thinking, “What am I gonna do here? Why are they listening to me?”
And those young people did it for their own peers, which is—I can completely understand the pride that you felt to know them and to be a part of that experience.
That’s really, really cool.
Kelly Prichard: Yeah. I think our kids, if anything, a lot of times they feel like no one’s listening. What we’re doing isn’t doing any good.
They have these negative feelings when you find out about these parties on the weekend and then these kids did this.
But I think if anything, they at least had the respect of their classmates because they were willing to do the things that they did.
And my kids got up and came to meetings before school. So they got up early in the morning and came an hour before school many days to plan and prepare and get ready and practice and all of that.
And so, you know, a lot of effort like that. Those kids really do care.
This is not just a “you get out of class to go to a meeting and you’re there for 20 minutes so you can sign a banner and say Red Ribbon, woo, I’m done.”
And it is like that in a lot of schools. The advisor does Red Ribbon Week and that’s really all they do.
Or they throw an after-party from a game, like two, three activities, they’re done. The kids really don’t have—they put their name up there, they can put it on a resume, check out, we’re done.
But my kids, they can put it on a resume, they got the T-shirt, but inside of them is a different person because of what they did.
Transformative Experiences in Prevention
Jake White: Yes. Well, that’s it. That’s the transformation they had because they were willing to take action.
It’s like, “Hey, my resume might say I do this,” but the ones who went and did something risky, they grew from the experience, they impacted their students, they got to benefit from all of it.
Not just the paper, but the actual experience of changing lives and doing things that are scary.
That pays off for a lifetime. That’s so cool.
Kelly Prichard: Yeah, it does.
Jake White: And you’re right. Unfortunately, we have people, professionals, adults everywhere that are either just going through the motions and doing the checkbox because, “Hey, we have to do Red Ribbon Week. It’s mandated by the state.”
And I’m gonna assume the best and just say, “Hey, they’re trying their best and got a bunch of stuff going on and understaffed, so they just check the box.”
And Kelly, I don’t think I told you this, but I’m gonna say it to benefit you and everybody on the air.
I know that sometimes for people to do prevention, they think it’s scary. They think of the highest-risk thing, which is like, “We have to have a speaker or start a club or run a campaign.”
And so they just don’t know where to start.
So we actually, right now, had developed a Vive18 Arcade game that’s just simple things students can play on their laptops to introduce them to prevention.
And it’s really fun. The students love it. But as we’re recording this, we’re actually developing the Red Ribbon Week version of it, and it’s going to be free for the entire nation.
Jake White: Yeah. So actually, Kelly, you get to hear it first.
Jake White: Yeah. And everyone who’s listening, if that sounds cool, you need a place to start with your school because maybe they’re like, “I don’t really know about prevention.”
If you want to show them how easy it is to start so that you can build upon it, go to Vive18Arcade.com and check it out. Okay. So that’s my little plug for Red Ribbon Week.
Tips for Engaging Students in Prevention
Jake White: Kelly, let’s close off this episode with some tips.
So you’ve been in the field doing on-the-ground work with teenagers for prevention.
There are people who listen to this podcast that are doing prevention as well. They might want to start a club or they just started one.
And sometimes we’re struggling with how to get students engaged or how to get them truly motivated.
If you have any tips from your experience doing that, I would love, love to hear it. I know our audience would too.
Kelly Prichard: Okay. The first thing that I would say is always gonna be—and I learned this from my mother-in-law, who was one of the most winningest coaches in Ohio in basketball—if they love you, they’ll do almost anything for you.
And you have to be genuine with them. And they have to know that this is not just a job that you’re doing, that you’re investing in them as human beings, and they see that and they’ll feel that. And if you’re not real genuine, you’re in the wrong profession because that is the key for all of it.
If they know that you care about them, which there’s a lot of ways to show that. When they walk in the room and they want to talk, you put down what you’re doing and you look at them and you actually listen and you follow up the next day. “How was your birthday dinner?”
So really, truly investing in them. That’s how you’re gonna get kids that want to come and will do whatever you think needs to be done. So I think that’s the first thing.
Excuse me while I put on my glasses because I am old, but they have to know that you care and that you want them to be their best self and you’re going to push them.
I expect a lot. And the kids know that, but that’s how you get results.
So if a student is supposed to show up and they don’t, I’m gonna follow up and ask, “Why weren’t you there? You were supposed to be there.” It’s not always okay.
Loving a kid doesn’t mean letting them get away with murder. So I always expected a lot. If you expect a lot, you’re gonna get great things. And I think those two things—and I would always tell them at the beginning of the year, “I expect a lot. I expect you to say what you’re gonna do and do what you say you’re gonna do.” But I love you. So if you can’t, you need to let me know. So let’s just be open and communicate. I did expect a lot and I did get great things out of them because of that. Another thing is recognizing mistakes. At every assembly I said, “These kids don’t think they’re perfect. They’re just trying harder to be better. That’s all it is.” Because sometimes people would act like kids that are on this team think they’re better than you because they don’t do this and they don’t do that.
But I said, “We’re not perfect. I’m not.” And when my kids would make a mistake, somebody would come to me and say, “Look at this picture of so-and-so with a beer,” and blah, blah, blah. Well, I wasn’t like, “Okay, well, they’re off the team.”
I would sit them down and say, “Hey, this is what someone talked to me about. Do you need to talk? What’s going on? Do you need some space? I don’t want you to not be a part of the team.” So we worked through things. Perfection is not a good expectation for anyone, especially someone working with teenagers.
Kelly Prichard: I do think that you need to support and encourage them and guide them.
So student-led—one of the biggest mistakes I probably ever made was doing more than I should have. And that’s part of my personality flaw.
I just wanted—if they weren’t doing it as fast as I wanted them to get done, I’d get in there and do it.
But I do think it’s really important. You need to let them, but I think it’s really important that you don’t always let them fail. Because you are the expert. You’re the adult.
So if a kid comes to you with an absolutely terrible idea that you know is gonna go sideways, you need to guide them the right way so that your activities, your energy, your money are gonna go well for you.
There’s just a fine line between it being student-led and letting the students make the decision and learning on their own, but you also want them to feel more success than failure.
Because they’re fragile. Teenagers are fragile. And when they feel a lot of failure around their friends, I think that will discourage them.
Guiding Student Ideas
Jake White: Right. Can you—I actually wanna dig in a little bit on that one.
So letting them do it, I think it’s so relatable. You’re the one who’s been doing it for years. You’ve seen a lot of things happen.
Either take me through, if you do have, like, if you can remember a specific circumstance or maybe just a hypothetical of a student comes to you with a blank idea, and then how you help them understand and coach them into a new direction without saying, “Hey, that’s a bad idea. We’re gonna do what I want instead.” What does that look like?
Kelly Prichard: Well, the one that comes to mind, of course, is they want to do a lock-in at the school.
Okay. That might work at a church when you have like 20 youth workers there, and it’s not on the school grounds.
But at the school, there’s too many rooms and too many hallways and there’s me. And I am not gonna micromanage boys and girls sleeping here and sleeping there.
So this kid says, “Yeah, we could do a lock-in.”
And I thought, “You know what? That sounds really fun, but I don’t think this is the place for that. I think that would be something you would need to do over there at a church.”
Although you guys want to spend time together, I understand that. Camp is a great thing for that. We’ll have a party at a house. We’ll hang out. But that’s a little different.
Jake White: That’s good. That’s good.
Kelly Prichard: And a lot of times it’s a fundraiser kind of thing where they think, “We could sell this.”
And I’m like, nobody wants that. Nobody’s going to buy that.
I wouldn’t say those words, but I would be like, “Okay, all right. Well, let’s think about it. Let’s think about what would really sell.” And we have to ask the school’s permission.
And if we’re gonna be out selling food at school, is that gonna hurt the cafeteria? Those are things that those little brains don’t really think about. So guiding them into the right kind of thing is really important.
Jake White: Okay, that’s good. I think that’s so important.
And it’s a skill actually to be able to do that in the moment because what you just showed me is, number one, you’re helping them think through the process.
You’re like, “Okay, I know that doesn’t work because of this. Let me help them discover that it doesn’t work.”
So for example, the school lock-in. Okay, so y’all know that the school is liable, or if something happens they could be sued. So how do we solve that problem?
And so you could direct them to, like you had mentioned, other alternative venues. So you’re teaching them to ask those same questions.
And same thing for the fundraisers. Okay, how will that affect the cafeteria? Are they gonna like that?
So what I love about the ways you did it is you didn’t squash their idea. You were saying, “Well, if that doesn’t work, what’s our other option? How can we think through this problem?”
Which, that’s the difference between, I would say, a poor manager and then a great coach.
Because the coach is telling you how to grow, how to think, how to transform yourself so that we can focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t.
So thank you for doing that.
Creative Fundraising Strategies
Kelly Prichard: Yeah. You know, my last tip really has to do with that fundraising.
And for kids to do some of the outrageous fun things, you kind of have to buy the love of their classmates a little bit. You just do.
You feed, you give freebies, you bring in fun things that cost money.
So you need to have—there’s a lot of ways you can save money and do things real cheap and make it real easy.
But if I want the kids to—let’s love on everybody with donuts, and donuts are really expensive and we just don’t want to spend that money right now. Obviously, kids can bring in donuts or something before school or during meetings.
If we want to have a carry-in breakfast, kids wanna get up, they wanna come in, they like to have breakfast. Well, you guys bring it in.
So there’s ways to save money that way. But when you’re trying to get the attention of their classmates, having money is important and being able to buy them things is important.
Bringing in something huge and impactful like Vive18, that’s important. You need to raise funds. And so a good advisor is really creative. And really, if you’re not creative, there’s no reason to not figure it out because ChatGPT is out there, AI is out.
I mean, all you gotta do is say, “Hey, what are some great ways that a rural school that’s K–12 in one building can make money?” But what I knew is, being in the school, you look around. What are kids spending their money on? How can I provide that so it makes me money?
So things like window decals on their car. Okay, well, how about we design those and we sell those and we upcharge them $5?
All the parents want them. They all want them. They all have them on their cars, right?
Or everybody’s buying T-shirts. Okay, well, now with online ordering, that is one of the easiest fundraisers that you can make so much money.
Holiday T-shirts or field day T-shirts or “I love the cheerleaders” T-shirts. Whatever it is that your school loves, make a T-shirt. Upcharge it, sell it.
All you gotta do—I mean, you don’t do anything. You make flyers, you advertise on social media, the shirts come in, usually they’re pre-packaged and labeled.
You tell the parents or the kids, “Come on in, come pick them up.” They do, and there you go.
We made money singing Christmas carols at a drive-thru light show at the fairgrounds.
Jake White: What?
Kelly Prichard: $300. They’re terrible. They say they don’t have good voices, but the cars drive by and they pay for the people to sing.
And they stood—they had the best time. It was freezing cold. They had the best time. They don’t care.
They give you the words and the kids stood up there.
We made money doing fair gates. We worked the fair gates. And that was a big undertaking, but that’s another creative way to make money.
We would—gosh, what else did we do? I can’t even think right now.
But you just have to be creative in the community and think about what will people pay money for. And then that’s what you do. So I was a big proponent of my kids are gonna work to make their money. They’re not gonna make other people pay to make their money.
So we did not sell popcorn or wrapping paper, things that people don’t need from us. We sold things people already wanted or service. We worked at a dog show. They went to the dog show, they cleaned up, they cleaned the bathrooms. I just found places that would hire groups of teenagers to go and get stuff done. And then that’s how we would raise our money.
Jake White: That’s so great.
That’s cool because then they’re learning life skills as well throughout those experiences, and they’re having fun with their friends because they’re working together and they’re raising money for their mission. And you’re even teaching them entrepreneurship of finding a need and solving it. Because you’re not like, “Yeah, go bring this magazine to someone’s door.” That’s great for students to learn door-to-door sales skills, but you’re actually causing them to say, “Wait, what does our community need?”
And that’s all part of prevention too, is finding out what your community needs and how do you solve those problems. So I love it, Kelly. Y’all are next level. Is that how you raised money for your conference?
Community Engagement and Support
Kelly Prichard: Now, when we’re looking to do something big, so when we want to travel, we will ask the community for donations.
But we also show the community, “This is how much money we raised on our own.”
And then whatever we can raise, the kids will pay what’s left.
So there’s certain years that we’ll ask the community, but I don’t agree with the school kind of just sucking all the money out of the community every year.
Because the restaurants, they get tired of it. They get, “I already gave, I already gave, I already gave.”
Okay, well, we only come every four years. We only ask for help every four years when we’re doing something big.
Other than that, we make our own money, we spend our money, we take care of our own stuff. You can ask out in the community.
There’s probably some communities out there—I know where I used to show up at SADD National Conference and there’d be a school, 45 students there, and they all were sponsored by Toyota.
Sent them all to conference, five, six hundred dollars each.
Jake White: Wow.
Kelly Prichard: So my community doesn’t have that. Some communities might. Mine does not. So we have to go to the smaller locally owned businesses and ask for donations.
And most times, because we’re so active, they’ll be like, “Yeah, you guys really do a great job and I’d be happy to help.”
So sometimes it’s a nice big chunk and sometimes it’s not.
But any money that you get donated—and then I am also a big proponent—our kids handwrite thank-yous.
Anybody that donated money, a thank-you goes back to them with their signatures on it so that they understand that we’re not just an ask-and-go kind of thing.
We really do appreciate what they gave.
And sometimes if it’s for a conference that they went to, we have them write how the conference went, “This is what I learned, I appreciate it so much,” and send that out.
Jake White: That’s incredible because that’s what relationships are all about.
And they’re getting to learn that at a young age—that, yeah, it’s not just about what you got, but it’s really about the partnership we’ve developed.
And we want to make sure the next student after you graduate can also go and ask and have a good reputation in the community.
So that’s so good.
Kelly, I wrote down two. If we’re working with young people, show that you care about them. They’re not just part of your club. You’re a part of their life.
And I love what you said, whether it’s just listening to them and following up about the small things that they’re sharing, showing up to places where they are, whether it’s a game or something like that.
It’s little ways that you’re showing, “Hey, I actually care about you. You’re not just in the club for me.”
Kelly Prichard: Yeah. Yeah.
High Expectations and Accountability
Jake White: You had mentioned—I love this one—high expectations and holding them accountable.
You’re there for a mission. And so we want to be achieving, like have that bar set high. We’re here to make a difference.
So I love that. And that you can hold them accountable. That’s a part of being on a team.
The third thing you said was to address mistakes. Don’t expect perfection, but be willing to have conversation about mistakes.
And I do get this question a lot, like, “What do I do if a student is using in my club?”
Well, that’s up to you and your students to develop a policy and then, again, to hold everyone accountable to it.
But we want to make sure that if someone needs prevention or recovery, that’s what our club is for.
So we definitely don’t want to turn our backs on them.
And I love the way that you showed that you did that throughout your club.
Kelly Prichard: Our superintendent had a—it was not—he did not instill a zero-tolerance policy, which some people might be like, “What?”
Well, zero tolerance, if you get caught, you’re suspended, maybe even expelled.
And what are they doing when they’re suspended and expelled? They’re home doing whatever they were doing to get them in trouble, most likely, unless their parents are really on top of it.
Which you’re gonna find kids that are making those mistakes often have absent parents or distracted parents.
So to suspend or expel a student is almost like giving them free-time permission to continue to make those poor decisions.
So we had a whole scaffold level of contact—warning, contact parents, conference, and then counseling and all of those kinds of things that were in place.
So that’s something that, because our school had that attitude, I could have that same attitude.
I could say, “Yeah, you made a mistake and I just need to—I don’t want you to leave the team.”
If you’re feeling a certain way, if you’re thinking you wanna participate in this stuff, I understand that, but let’s finish this year.
Why don’t you just hang on?
And especially if they’re seniors, finish your year, finish your high school career the way you wanted to finish it when you were a freshman, and then reevaluate.
But here you are right now and you have a lot of eyes on you. A lot of people are watching you.
So you really need to be sure if changing your attitude is a good thing.
I mean, when they come in, whether they’re a senior or a freshman, they have to write an essay.
So that’s part of my high expectations.
Do I care if they spell things right? No, I don’t. It’s not about that. The essay is about, will they sit down and put pen to paper and actually write for me? Because if they won’t do that, they’re not gonna do other things. Kids don’t wanna write. They don’t wanna sit down and write. But if they are willing to sit down and they are going to write a paragraph, the content of it isn’t even the purpose for me. The purpose was, prove to me that you really want to be on this team and you’re not just here for the fun. And they do it.
Jake White: Well, that’s so good. Kelly, that’s so good.
Kelly Prichard: Yep. And I get really good stuff in there.
I have a stack, Jake, like this of application essays from all of my kids. I save them.
And I want to have a retirement party from SADD. And I want all my former students that want to come back to come back. And I want to give them their essay.
And I want them to remember why they did this, how they felt in that moment. I probably should give it to them as a senior, but they get so much stuff when they’re seniors they don’t even think about it. But now as an adult, come back. Here’s how you felt about this.
How you felt about it then probably hasn’t changed. Just the amount of pressure you’re allowing or the way the world affects you might change.
So if you feel like you want to be drug free when you’re in the ninth grade, you probably really meant it. And you just let the world change you if they strayed from that. So I think keeping that contract and giving it back to them is a good reminder of where they started this whole business when they had less pressure from the world around them.
Jake White: I love that idea. I hope everyone listening—please steal that.
What’s so cool about it is accountability is one thing. So, “Hey, here’s what you joined the club for. Here’s your perspective on it.”
That’s great. That’s from their own mind. So you don’t have to convince them to be any different. You’re speaking their language. So I love the fact that you do that.
And then the second thing is the culture of an organization is so important. So if you’ve got a bunch of people in there who just want to goof off and they don’t care about the mission and they show up for pizza and they’re distracting everybody, then your club is going to have four people in it because everyone who wanted to be there left and just the goofballs are there for free pizza.
So I love the fact that you gave them something to do to qualify them so that the students who are there are the ones who wanna be there. Listen, y’all, don’t miss that.
If you’re listening to this and you do one thing after this episode, build a qualifier into your application process so the right people are in the right seats.
That would cure so many headaches for prevention specialists who are running peer-led clubs.
Kelly Prichard: Right. And I think that sometimes you get the kids—like I always have them put on their application, “How many other things are you involved in?”
And you might be like, “Those kids are so ambitious.”
No. They’re not gonna follow through. They’re gonna spread themselves too thin and they’re not gonna have enough to give to you. You almost want the kid that has nothing else.
All this kid does is maybe they’re on esports, that’s it. Maybe they have a job but they don’t participate in anything at school. Maybe they’re a one-sport athlete and not a three-sport athlete with clubs in the summer.
Jake White: And you know what’s so good about that question?
Because then you can gauge. You’re like, “Okay, you’re involved in 55 other things. Yes, you can come to the meetings, you can participate, recruit with us, but I’m not gonna hand you the vice president role.” Because you’re so right. You’re spread thin.
This student who is here all the time, really passionate about it, doesn’t have a lot else going on—cool. I can confidently hand them this position because, number one, it’s gonna get done, and two, it means more to them.
They’re like, “This is the leadership development tool that’s gonna change their life.”
So that’s so cool.
While we’re chatting about it, is there anything else that’s on that application that you’re like, “Yeah, this is so good?” Because those two are incredible already.
Kelly Prichard: Well, I ask if they know what SADD stands for because I think that’s important—that they know what they’re joining this group for. What is it even for?
And some of them don’t, but that’s okay. It’s a learning thing.
But in the essay, I give some suggestions on what to write about.
And one suggestion is, “Do you have any ideas of things that we need to address in this school? What do you see as the problems that we need to address?”
Because that helps me know what direction to focus.
And then also, “What in your past is gonna make you valuable for us?”
And a lot of times you learn about kids.
“My mom is an alcoholic.”
“I watched my grandfather drink himself to death.”
“My aunt died in a car crash because someone was drinking.”
So they’ve got something deep inside of them that motivates them to want to be involved in this group.
And that is a beautiful thing to know about because there may be a time where you can utilize that and you can be like, “Hey, I remember you talked about this in your essay. Would you want to be the one to present this to the class? Do you want to help work on this project about distracted driving because that’s important to you?”
Or speeding or drugs or whatever, bullying—whatever.
You can kind of focus those kids and give them a purpose because a lot of kids will just kind of sit in the background and, “I don’t know what to do.”
But if you know where they’re passionate, you can help direct them or guide them or give them the right place to fit.
Empowering Students Through Ownership
Jake White: Wow, I love that. I love that so much.
And that goes with the last two, which is like letting them do it.
Because you emphasize, “Hey, giving you a project that fits you, let them do it.”
It’s their club, their responsibility.
If you’re doing everything as the advisor, then we’re missing the mark.
You don’t need another job, Kelly, right? You’re already a busy teacher. You’re doing all these other things. You have a family.
So everyone listening totally understands that.
Like, man, yeah. If I could do less and the students could do more, that’s the thing.
So we have to let them do it in order for them to get that ownership.
And the last thing that you mentioned, which I loved, you shared some ideas of creative fundraising. That is kind of part of your job.
And Kelly, this has been awesome.
This has been like a masterclass on how to be a superstar SADD advisor—or if you have a different name, right? If it’s not SADD or whatever you call your club.
Your brain just is firing on all cylinders. I can tell your passion and all your experience because you have all these stories and different things that y’all have done.
So if people want to get a hold of you, Kelly, I know that you’re involved in this space and you’re such a giving heart.
If people want to talk to you more or learn more about what you’re up to with prevention or seek your guidance or support or even speaking opportunities with you, how can people get a hold of you?
Kelly Prichard: So I can make my email available. Do you want me to give that now?
Jake White: Sure, yeah.
Kelly Prichard: It would be PKPRICHARD2@hotmail.com. And if you miss that, Jake can get that for you.
You can connect with me that way. But also, if you really want to see the things that we’ve done or that we’re doing, Allen East SADD has a Facebook, an Instagram. There’s a TikTok, but I don’t know how active that’s been. So you can scroll way back and see all kinds of pictures.
Another place I might look for us, if you’re interested, would be YouTube because we have posted a lot of resources that we used in contests. Or I would create this PowerPoint and post it on YouTube.
So I think a lot of that was made public. It’s all safe for kids and whatnot. But there’s a lot of contests out there that require you to create a short PSA or PowerPoints we made for presentations and things like that that we use YouTube for.
So you might look there and see if there’s some more resources there. But I would love to hear specifically what you’re struggling with and either send you some of my resources or get a quick phone call with you and kind of talk over it.
I mean, we’ve got lots of ideas for projects that are free, that are easy, things like that.
So I would love to connect with anybody that wanted help. I just want you to have the best time ever and I want your kids to feel good.
Because at the end of the day, like I said before, a lot of them will say, “Well, KP, I don’t think we’re making any difference. I heard this and this and that and no one’s listening.”
And I’m like, “Listen, did it change your world? Did it change your life?” And they’ll be like, “Yeah.”
Well, that’s all that matters to me. If it’s only 20 of you, if there’s only five of you, it doesn’t matter.
We’re trying our best to change the world around you. And if you see it, that’s amazing.
If you don’t see it, don’t assume it isn’t happening. But the change inside of you is the one that matters the most.
So if you leave high school and you avoid making all those destructive decisions and you create a path for your future because you avoided those destructive decisions, you won.
We all won. And if it only lasts four years, it does. But you at least made a difference in their high school career. And I really feel like if I have this reunion, if I have this retirement thing, I’m gonna get kids coming back and they’re gonna say great things about how glad they are that they were a part of that.
And I bet you, if kids would be honest, the ones that weren’t a part of it, they would say, “Yeah, that was really cool that they did that. I would never have the nerve to do that. I’m really glad we had that in my school.”
Because in my high school, which was huge, we didn’t have anything like that.
There, in my eyes, there was nobody telling me no. Nobody.
So to have this in that small school where you grew up is an amazing thing.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Jake White: Yeah. Thank you, Kelly.
Well, y’all heard—you have her email. If you missed it, you can get a hold of me. I’ll connect y’all. And check out Allen East SADD on social media and YouTube to get inspired.
She’s got the tools and, like you’ve seen, is just ready to share because your students are worth it. And I just want to close out today by reminding all of you that you’re doing incredible work. We don’t always see the fruit right away, but you’re planting seeds. Lives are being changed.
And I just want to thank you for being in the prevention field. I hope you can stay as long as possible. And to help you out, we will see you next Monday on another episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour.
Connect With Kelly Prichard
Kelly welcomes prevention professionals, educators, and youth advisors who want to connect, exchange ideas, or learn from the projects she and her students have developed.
Email: PKPRICHARD2@hotmail.com
