Sammy D Foundation celebrates educating over 200,000 participants!
THE SAMMY D FOUNDATION CELEBRATES EDUCATING OVER 200,000 PARTICIPANTS
The Sammy D Foundation celebrates the milestone of educating over 200,000 participants across the not-for-profit’s 14-year history today.
The Foundation achieved the milestone today while presenting to over 280 year nine students at Golden Grove High School, where they will present four times over the coming two weeks, educating over 1160 young people across years 9 – 10.
The Sammy D Foundation was set up in 2008 by husband-and-wife team Neil Davis and Nat Cook after their 17-year-old son Sam was fatally hit while trying to intervene in a fight at a party. Since then, the Sammy D Foundation has continued to grow in influence and impact over the past 14 years, with the ultimate aim of providing skills to young people so they can live a life free of violence.
Today, the Sammy D Foundation offers a full suite of programs aimed at preventing bullying, violence and alcohol and other drug misuse in schools, sporting clubs and the community. The programs are aimed towards educating young people about the consequences of bullying and violence and how to prevent incidences, the harms associated with alcohol and other drug misuse, educating young people and their parents about how to hold safer parties, and educating parents about the behavioural impact and positive role modelling for their children.
The Foundation has proven itself as a national leader in violence and drug and alcohol education, and in 2021 alone visited over 140 schools and sporting clubs, and offered a combined total of 563 programs and presentations.
Sammy D CEO, Brigid Koenig, said that achieving today’s milestone was a tremendous result but there is still much for the Foundation to do.
“Being able to educate over 200,000 young people in the Foundation’s short history is a remarkable result and something that we are really proud of.” Said, Ms Koenig
“We have grown our suite of programs over the years to extend our reach into more schools across Adelaide, regional South Australia and now into the Northern Territory; and we have partnered with numerous sporting codes, clubs and organisations so we can reach more young people every year."
“The Sammy D Foundation has shown how valuable these programs are for the schools and young people who engage with them, with the post-program evaluations showing that 92% of our participants did not get involved in bullying because of the information they were given, 98% of participants were more aware of the risks associated with drug and alcohol misuse, and 98% of the participants said that they were made more aware of the impacts of a one punch."
“These results show that our programs are working and we are making a real difference, but there is still so much more that needs to be done. All schools across the state would benefit from our primary prevention programs and we continue to implore the South Australian Government to reinstate our funding so we can continue to deliver these programs to help make our community safer.”
For further information and details on these programs please visit: http://www.sammydfoundation.org.au
Media Contact:
Leigh McGrane | Against The Grain | 0438 699 795 | Leigh@atgpr.com.au
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