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Celebrate. Look Out for Each Other. Make Sure Everyone Gets Home.
Homecoming is a time for school spirit, celebrations, and making memories with friends. But the activities surrounding homecoming can also create risky situations, particularly when alcohol or other substances, impaired driving, private parties, distracted driving, and changing plans are involved.
Homecoming HOPE is a SADD campaign designed to help students, families, schools, and communities work together to make homecoming celebrations safer.
Building on the success of SADD’s PROM efforts, Homecoming HOPE goes beyond simply telling students what not to do. The campaign encourages students to plan ahead, communicate with trusted adults, look out for their friends, and make decisions that help everyone get home safely.
Through four simple steps, SADD chapters can lead a Homecoming HOPE campaign in their own school and create conversations about traffic safety, substance use, responsible decision-making, and looking out for one another.
H — Have a Plan
Safe celebrations start with a plan.
Homecoming can include much more than the dance itself. Football games, dinners, parties, gatherings with friends, and after-homecoming activities can mean students are traveling between several locations throughout the night.
Homecoming HOPE encourages students to think ahead about where they are going, who they will be with, how they will get there, and—most importantly—how they will get home safely.
Through the My Homecoming Plan activity, SADD chapters can help students create a plan, identify a backup plan, and make sure a trusted adult knows where they will be.
O — Open the Conversation
Talk before homecoming—not when something has already gone wrong.
Open communication between students and trusted adults can make it easier to ask for help when plans change or a situation becomes unsafe.
The Homecoming Conversation Guide helps students and families talk about plans, expectations, transportation, parties, alcohol and other substances, and what to do if something unexpected happens. Families are also encouraged to establish code words students can use by text or phone when they need help, need an excuse to leave a situation, or simply want to communicate that they are okay.
The goal is simple: make sure students know there is someone they can call when they need help.
P — Protect Your People
Friends look out for friends.
Sometimes protecting your people means speaking up when something doesn’t feel right. It could mean stopping a friend from riding with an impaired driver, asking someone to put down their phone while driving, helping a friend leave an uncomfortable situation, or finding a trusted adult when someone needs help.
Through the What Would You Do? activity, students explore realistic situations they could encounter during homecoming and consider how they would respond. SADD chapters are encouraged to incorporate these scenarios into a homecoming assembly or schoolwide program alongside a speaker, traffic safety demonstration, or other interactive activities. They can also be used during lunch, homeroom, advisory periods, or other homecoming week activities.
E — Everyone Gets Home
A great homecoming ends with everyone getting home safely.
Homecoming HOPE concludes by asking the entire school community to make a commitment to safety.
Through the Everyone Gets Home Pledge, students can share what they will do to help create a safer homecoming—from wearing a seat belt and choosing a safe ride to putting away their phone and looking out for friends.
SADD chapters can create a pledge wall or banner in a high-traffic area of the school
and invite students to complete one simple statement: “Everyone gets home when we…”
Together, those individual commitments become a visible reminder that everyone has a role in making homecoming safer.
Bring Homecoming HOPE to Your School
Homecoming HOPE is designed to be flexible. Chapters can implement the complete campaign or select activities that work best for their school and homecoming schedule.
Use the Homecoming HOPE resources to engage students during homecoming week, involve parents and families, partner with school and community leaders, and start conversations that can continue long after the dance is over.
Whether your chapter reaches students through an assembly, lunchtime activity, classroom conversation, social media campaign, or schoolwide pledge, every activity should reinforce the same message:
- Have a Plan
- Open the Conversation
Protect Your People.
Everyone Gets Home.
Ready to Get Started?
Download the Homecoming HOPE Toolkit for ready-to-use activities, conversation resources, scenarios, promotional materials, and ideas to help your SADD chapter bring Homecoming HOPE to your school.
Make the memories. Protect your people. Make sure everyone gets home.
