Students keeping students safe
SLS trains Michigan students to lead peer prevention in their own schools. They build leadership, resistance skills, and the confidence to look out for one another before problems become crises.
Our Mission
Student Leadership Services, Inc. (SLS), is a nationally certified, Michigan-based, 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to ensuring our youth remain safe from drugs, alcohol, and peer pressure and thrive physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. SLS accomplishes its goals through innovative and evidence-based prevention programming within student-led, adult-supported school chapters while also leveraging technology and collaboration with community partners to evolve and grow continually.
Our Vision
Every youth can lead toward positive change in peers’ thoughts and behaviors.
Three ways to work with SLS
Bring student-led prevention to your building
Launch an SLS or STAND chapter in your school. Students lead prevention work for their peers, with advisor training and ongoing support from SLS staff.
- Start an SLS or STAND chapter
- Advisor training and ongoing materials
- Statewide network and annual Conference
Contract with SLS to deliver evidence-based curriculum
For schools that want a structured curriculum delivered by trained SLS staff. Nationally recognized programs, aligned with Michigan Department of Education standards.
- Botvin LifeSkills Training
- Prime For Life
- Guiding Good Choices
Fund the mission that keeps students safe
Since 1982, SLS has relied on the generosity of donors and sponsors. Your gift directly supports training students in the leadership and prevention skills that save lives.
- Make a tax-deductible donation
- Become a corporate sponsor
- Sponsor the Golf Outing or Conference
How we empower students
We listen to students, engage them as partners, then give them the platform to lead.
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Listen to Students
Youth voice matters above all. Students know what the most pressing problems are in their schools and communities. We ask, then listen.
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Engage Students
SLS students are not helpers in adult-created projects. They decide what is meaningful to them and create their own initiatives, seeking adult guidance as needed.
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Let Them Lead
We coach leadership skills and provide the tools and platform. Then we get out of the way and let students lead.
In their words
A few months ago I lost contact with a close friend because she started acting out. After the workshop I realized many of the things she was doing were warning signs. I sent her a simple text asking if she was ok, and she instantly responded with everything that had been happening. She was really grateful that I reached out because she needed someone to talk with.
SLS Student · Freeland High School
Dawn creates a safe space for students to try on the mantle of leadership. I love seeing students engage that have been limited in the past.
Once again you have proven the relevance of SLS and why your agency is so important to our kids and families today. World class resources for all of us.
What’s happening at SLS
40th Annual SLS High School Conference
Students Leading Students from across Michigan gather for three days of leadership training, peer-led workshops, and statewide networking, with an optional pre-conference day for advisors and new chapters.
March 5, 2027
6th Annual Golf Outing
Tee It High. Let It Fly. Fore the Kids. SLS’s biggest fundraiser of the year — a 4-person scramble at The Links at Crystal Lake.
September 19, 2026About Student Leadership Services
Student Leadership Services (SLS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Waterford, Michigan that trains students in leadership, resistance skills and peer education.
Founded in 1982, SLS runs student-led, adult-supported prevention programming through school chapters across Michigan, covering substance use, mental health, bullying, safe driving and healthy relationships.
SLS is based at 1150 Scott Lake Rd., Waterford, Michigan 48328, and works with schools across the state of Michigan.
SLS is led by Executive Director Dawn Flood, with Pamela Voss-Page as Research Director and a board of directors headed by Ward Bartlett.
No. SLS stands for Student Leadership Services, a youth substance-abuse prevention non-profit in Michigan.
It is unrelated to school library services, and unrelated to other organizations and products that use the SLS acronym.
Support the mission
Since 1982, SLS has run on the generosity of donors and sponsors. Your gift goes directly to:
- Student leadership and peer-education training
- Chapter startup support and advisor materials
- The annual statewide Conference
Student Leadership Services is a 501(c)(3) non-profit · gifts are tax-deductible · EIN 38-2879899
Get in touch
Questions about chapters, curriculum, or working with SLS? Tell us a little and we’ll be in touch.