Vision

All urban youth graduate from high school prepared to succeed in college and their careers, and to contribute to their communities.

Mission

As SUDL, our mission is to bring the education of policy debate to as many students of color and/or low-income as possible.

Primary Goal

To successfully maintain competitive debate programs in our four existing participating school districts; adding new urban secondary schools as SUDL grows. SUDL has developed strategic directions and action steps to accomplish this goal. These strategic directions and action steps vary in their level of specificity; the plan is more specific where there is a greater level of consensus on the goal at issue and less specific where the goal is more short term, and/or where it is less affected by the operational environment. Furthermore, SUDL will frequently assess the human resources, financial resources, and organizational infrastructure changes required to implement the programs outlined in this plan. On an annual basis, SUDL Executive Director and Board Committee will create working documents that will define the operational approach to achieving the organization’s strategic goals.

Rationale

Last year thousands of students participated in urban debate throughout the United States. There are thousands more who did not have the opportunity to debate, either because their school did not have a debate team, or because the team did not recruit students effectively. Because urban debate can change the life trajectory of urban youth, SUDL can – and must – reach more students. Over the next year, SUDL’s primary goal will be to maintain competitive debate programs in our four existing participating school districts; adding new urban secondary schools as SUDL grows. SUDL has chosen to focus its efforts on policy debate, because research shows that this form of debate dramatically changes educational outcomes for urban students. By committing to bring debate to five schools in 2014, SUDL has challenged its Board and Executive Director with an ambitious goal. To meet this goal, it will work closely with the local school districts and hire coaches while providing debate programming.