identity leadership™ in the community

As the natural heroes of our youth and communities, athletes play a key role in creating positive examples and messaging. In 1985, Stedman Graham founded Athletes Against Drugs, engaging 500 professional athletes and celebrities to help encourage youth in healthy life decisions, living drug-free and developing life skills needed for positive economic, academic and professional development.
Not only does AAD help fight the poverty cycle in which many minority and disadvantaged youth are placed—but it also fights the crime cycle, in which gangs and prisons become the destination for kids without healthy alternatives.
Working with schools, corporations, and athletic organizations, AAD creates ways to “give back” to our youth. Programs include literacy, health, sports, leadership, scholarship and life skill training. For more than 30 years, AAD has reached out and offered a hand up to hundreds of thousands of young men and women.

A small, historically black town in Cape May County, New Jersey, has transformed through this grassroots organization into a strong and vibrant community. As a “native son” of the town, Stedman Graham has played a key role in engaging residents, organizations and educators in the development work. They have built a $1.4 million community center, attracted $800,000 in grant funds to refurbish the local school, and another $50,000 grant to preserve the history of the area. Voter registration drives, senior citizen services, academic scholarships for youth, and recreational programs have been developed. An annual Reunion Festival helps build community pride, conveying the vision of a strong Whitesboro for years to come.

From Oceanside, California, the Quantum Learning Network of Bobbi DePorter partnered with Stedman Graham and Associates to involve community leaders from all areas to empower youth success from many angles and sectors.

Founded in 1997, the Concerned Citizens of Lake Waccamaw supports the growth of physical, economic and social aspects of the Waccamaw Siouan People and surrounding communities in the Southeastern area of North Carolina. The St. James area is a mix of ethnic peoples and the CCSW sponsors efforts to support education, community programs and a community center there. Stedman Graham has been a key supporter of the CCLW.
A Message From Stedman Graham
