SOCIAL POLICY DECISIONS PAPER1Social Policy Decisions PaperYoneisha MapleUniversity of PhoenixBSHS 355March 20, 2017
SOCIAL POLICY DECISIONS PAPER2Mothers Against Drunk Driving also known as MADD is the nation’s largest nonprofitorganization that works to protect families and reduce drunk driving and the deaths and injuriesthat it causes. Though their original goal was just to reduce drunk driving, they’ve taken theliberty of expanding their purpose to include non-drunk driving issues as well, such as opposingdrinking by young adults and others under age 21. MADD (which originally stood for MothersAgainst Drunk Drivers) was created by Candace Lightner, in May of 1980 four days after thetragic death of her daughter Cari Lightner on May 3rd. “Cari was a 13 year old softball all-star inFair Oaks California. She and a friend were walking to a church carnival, when she was hit frombehind and thrown out of her shoes 125 feet away. She was killed by a multiple repeat offender,drunk driver who was just released from jail two days prior from a DUI arrest. He fled the scenebut was later arrested and charged with her death. Candace was shocked to learn that over theprior decade 250,000 people were killed in alcohol related crashes and each year 660,000 morepeople were injured. At that time, public health professionals considered drunk driving to be thenumber one killer of Americans between the ages of 15 and 24” (Founding MADD, 2013).Candace began her work with MADD as a way for her to deal with her anger and rage after herdaughter died.MADD began with just one person, whose anger about injustice incited people to action.Her father and a few friends got on board to help her and in three years’ time, the country wasfaced with a plethora of victims and families of people who were also outraged by the countriesmost committed crime. It became an international organization with almost 400 chaptersworldwide, a staff of 50 employees, 2 million members, thousands of volunteers and an annualbudget of more than 12 million dollars. It had gotten so much recognition that it began toinfluence legislation. “MADD’s public relations campaigns played a key role in changing the
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