Announcing Diversity Scholarships for #SSDP2018

Deadline January 31 at 11:59pm EST   In an ongoing effort to ensure that a diverse group of individuals and viewpoints are represented at our upcoming #SSDP2018 international conference, Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s Diversity Awareness Reflection and Education (DARE) Committee is offering scholarships to help defray the cost of attending the conference. Interested in applying for the DARE Scholarship? Fill out this form here. To donate to the scholarship fund, visit the DARE scholarship donation page.   What is the Diversity Awareness Reflection and Education (DARE) committee? SSDP DARE, formerly known as ORD (Outreach, Recruitment, Diversity) Committee is a collaborative committee comprised of board & non-board members, students, alumni, & community members dedicated to broadening Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s (SSDP) base & increasing engagement with presently underrepresented perspectives.   Since its founding in March 2011, the DARE committee has taken on the challenges of strengthening diversity in all its forms within SSDP. The committee endeavors to ensure that the range of perspectives & personal experiences of all communities and individuals negatively impacted in the War on Drugs are represented & integrated into SSDP & the drug policy reform movement at large. DARE does this by creating a welcoming, open, & safe space for all stakeholders.   Join our Facebook group here or contact Elise at elise@ssdp.org if you’re interested in getting involved.   Who can apply for an DARE scholarship? Do you self-identify with a group that is generally under-represented at SSDP events and conferences? Perhaps your race, gender, sexual orientation, age or life experiences mean that you lie outside of the range of demographics that are typical of SSDP conferences. Perhaps you are a returning student, a veteran, a parent, or an immigrant. Maybe you are the only SSDP chapter leader in your state. Or, perhaps, nobody from your chapter has ever attended an SSDP conference.   This sounds too good to be true! What’s the catch? Scholarship recipients will only receive their scholarship upon completion of the following items:

• Attendance at the DARE meetup at #SSDP2018
• Submission of a 1-2 paragraph reflection on their conference experiences and what the scholarship meant to them

  Here is how the DARE committee defines “diversity”: Age, Background, Class or Socioeconomic Identification, Culture & Traditions, Current Student or Non-Student Status, Disability or Differently-Abled Status, Diversity of Opinion, Employment Status, Ethnicity, Gender Identification, Ideology, Language, Mental Health, Moral Framework, Nationality, Physical Health, Political Affiliation, Pregnancy & Parenting Status (pregnant women, custodial and noncustodial parents, foster & adoptive parents, legal guardians, etc), Primary Movement of Identification (formerly incarcerated, recovery, student, etc.), Race, Relationship Orientation & Status, Relationship With Drugs/How One Self-Identifies in Relation to Drugs (user, non drug user, addict, recreational user, medical user, abstainer, in recovery, etc.), Religion, Sexual Identification, Stake in Reform, Subculture, and any other self-identifiers.* If any of these categories describe you, or you simply can not afford to attend conference without additional financial support, this scholarship may be for you! Apply today! The deadline to apply is January 31, 2018!