Making a Difference

DEF’s mission is to improve the lives of young people by empowering them with effective decision skills. Are we doing this? And are we making a difference in their lives?

Information gathered from teachers, DEF staff members, and students over the last eight years indicates that good things are happening. We’d like to share some of our stories with you. In “Up Close and Personal,” you’ll find examples of how DEF has affected young people, plus thoughts about the foundation from some of our staff members. In “Case Studies,” you can read about some of our DEF projects in greater detail. And of course, we’d like to hear from you if you have your own DEF story to tell.

In addition, we would like to share some of the evaluations we have received from DEF workshop attendees.

Although we’re pleased to hear how our work is positively affecting young people now, we know that the challenges ahead are urgent and important: leveraging our efforts to reach greater numbers of educators and students, completing additional classroom-ready curriculum, and introducing more rigorous metrics for evaluating the results of our various programs. In other words, “we’ve only just begun.”

Each of the stories here suggests that we’re making good progress and are, indeed, making a difference in young lives.