Why is life for America's teens and adolescents so troubled, so desperate, so dangerous?

What's happening today is far from harmless rebellion. A huge appetite has been left unfed in our kids, and as the streets become meaner than they've ever been, many of today's youth walk a fine line between life and death. Sports offers a better way. Sports offers the structure studies show kids find compelling in gangs - a definite hierarchy with established leaders, roles, and responsibilities - and offer youth a place to belong, a role to play, and the sense of meaning they crave. Where the choices today's kids face all too often lead to long prison sentences and early graves, sports teaches the empowering fundamentals of leadership, teamwork, and competition, and build stronger kids. It is a critical, life-saving alternative - and it works.

Athletes Against Drugs is proud to be a leader in the fight to save young lives from the devastation of gangs and drugs. Since our inception, we've impacted the lives of over 20,000 youth with the positive alternative of sports, and now is a great time for you to be a part of all we're doing. On behalf of AAD and its supporters, we look forward to joining forces with you to provide the leadership and resources needed to reinforce a healthy, positive lifestyle for our youth.

by Stedman Graham

About Mr. Stedman Graham

Stedman Graham is Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of S. Graham & Associates, a management and marketing consulting firm serving the corporate and education markets. Clients include Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Manpower, GlaxoSmithKline, Frankel, the Department of Labor’s Job Corps, and The State University of New York.

A commitment to education and lifelong learning is central to Stedman Graham’s philosophy. He co-authored The Ultimate Guide to Sport Event Management & Marketing (McGraw Hill). In March 1997, Simon & Schuster published a book detailing his Nine-Step empowerment philosophy, You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success, which was a New York Times Bestseller. Other writings also published by Simon & Schuster include You Can Make It Happen Every Day, a motivational pocketbook, Teens Can Make It Happen (also a New York Times Bestseller), and Build Your Own Life Brand. Simon & Schuster has also published a Workbook companion piece to Teens Can Make It Happen.

Graham is an adjunct professor at The Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, where he developed and teaches the first sports marketing curriculum for second-year MBA students. He is a former adjunct professor of a Kellogg management and strategy course entitled “Dynamics of Leadership”. Graham is an adjunct professor at The University of Illinois where he teaches a leadership course based on his book You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success. In addition, Graham is a distinguished visiting professor at Coker College, and a visiting professor at The George Washington University (GWU), as well as a founder and former director of GWU’s Forum for Sport and Event Management and Marketing ­ the first of its kind in the country. The Forum provides academic programming, career training, and business and employment research in sports and related industries, with a focus on minorities and women.

Equally crucial to Graham’s philosophy is a commitment to youth and community. He is founder of The Leadership Institute of Chicago, a nonprofit education and research organization dedicated to promoting effective leadership throughout society. Activities include seminars, programs and lectures; philanthropic activities; publications; and primary research. He is also founder and executive director of Athletes Against Drugs (AAD), a nonprofit organization of athletes and other civic leaders committed to developing leadership in youth. AAD provides in-class curriculum to Chicago Public Schools and conducts corporate leadership visits, parent workshops, role model presentations, community and volunteer projects, as well as sports clinics with professional athletes.

Graham is an accomplished speaker and lecturer. During the past year, he has delivered the message of his books You Can Make It Happen, Teens Can Make It Happen and Build Your Own Life Brand to over 100 corporations, colleges, universities, high schools and not-for-profit organizations. Clients include the MBA programs at the Harvard and Wharton business schools, US Department of Education, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and the US Olympic Committee.

Graham is a member of the Economic Club and serves on several charitable boards of directors including the national board of Junior Achievement (JA). He initiated and directed the creation of JA’s BASE program (Building Achievement through Sports and Entertainment). BASE is comprised of curricula and activities to introduce middle and high school students to the business aspects of sports and entertainment.

Stedman Graham received a bachelor’s degree in social work from Hardin-Simmons University and earned a master’s degree in Education from Ball State University. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate in Humanities from Coker College, and recognized by the American Advertising Federation as an “Industry Influential” for his work in support of diversity.