Staying Connected While Staying Apart

We are still here. While MADD Nebraska may be keeping our social distance, just like everyone else right now, we still want to connect with you and continue to offer all of the services MADD has, even if they look a little different right now. We wanted to take a moment to share with you some of the new things we are working on during this time to keep connected with all of you!

First, we encourage you all to make sure you are following us on our Facebook page @NebraskaMADD. We will be using this platform to share videos of our lives behind the scenes, learning tools and information on MADD in general just as we always do. In fact, we are starting a Teen Tuesday video series next week. The series will focus each week on a different aspect of our Power of Youth program, encouraging students at home with their parents to take this time to have open and honest conversations about alcohol and drug use. We promise you will probably see a lot more of our faces and a lot more videos during this time, so be prepared!

We are also using this month to launch our first ever online victim support group. We have worked with so many of you across the state and we know that many of you are dealing with grief and trauma along with the isolation of the current circumstances. So, we wanted the chance to give you a place where you can support one another. Our victim support group will be meeting virtually starting at 6:00 p.m. on April 21st and will meet each month on the third Tuesday of the month. We are hoping these meetings will be a support and an outlet for all of you and we are looking forward to connecting with you! We will be sharing the meeting info on social and via our newsletter, but if you would like to join, please just message us and we will send you the information personally!

MADD Nebraska would also like you to know that all of our resources and presentations are available virtually. Power of Parents and Power of Youth are both available pre-recorded or as a live zoom presentation. We know that many groups are working to stay connected and may be interested in great educational content, we can help. These presentations can be done in about a half an hour, so if students need a little brain break or you want some good tools to start the conversation about drugs and alcohol, we’ve got you covered! We are also able to do other presentations virtually, other staff can talk about MADD in general, our court monitoring program or victim services through virtual platforms. Why not learn something new while you are at home!

We are also joining our National office in an online fundraising challenge, #maddworld. We encourage you to check it out. It is simple, share a photo of your current #maddworld, aka the craziness that is your current life at home, make a donation to MADD and tag your friends to join in the fun. We have shared ours on our official Facebook page, but you can use any social platform you would like! During these difficult times, it is important to remember that MADD’s services will be here until there are No More Victims and our mission to end drunk driving remains the same, socially distant or not!

Most of all, we want you all to know that we are here and we remain steadfast in our work and our desire to be connected with you all. Call us, email us, chat with us via Facebook. We want to hear from you. Our desire is to be more connected now than ever. We are providing victim services virtually, we do have ways for you to volunteer from your home, we are still here for each and every one of you. While our work is remote right now, we are still connected, close and caring. If you are home, we hope you are healthy and safe…and as sane as possible in the craziness of the world. If you are still out in the world, we thank you for your role of protection. We are incredibly thankful for everyone who is providing essential services that keep us all safe. We look forward to the day we all can work side by side again, until then we are here working for you and with you, apart.