With a rich history, this program laid its roots in Las Vegas in the fall of 1986, when a group of high school students from the Southern Nevada Area joined together with adults from the City of Las Vegas Parks & Recreation Department and City of Las Vegas Lower Court Counseling to form the Southern Nevada Chapter of Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD). The following year, after months of community activities, this organization held the first SADD Camp, conveying an anti-drunk driving and reinforcing an anti-drug use and gang violence message. After a few years of great success, the organization initiated a name change to reflect its broader message – SADDD: Students Against Driving Drunk & Drugs.
As this program continued to grow rapidly, in 1990 the City turned the program over to the Clark County School District, and, to show its evolution, the group changed its name to STATUS: Students Taking Action to Terminate Unlawful Substances. The camp continued each year, as well as the expanding community programs.
In the late 1990s, the Clark County School District decided to let the group proceed on its own and transferred funding to other programs. STATUS pressed forward, evolving into HEROs (Helping Everyone Realize Opportunities). However, the leadership program was left without a parent organization to assist in the forward progression of the group. At that time, the Las Vegas Elks’ offered support to HEROs, and recruited the organization for their own youth drug prevention program.
In 2005, HEROs decided that it was time to move out on it’s own, and become it’s own entity. In July of that same year, the program directors filed and received corporation status for a non-profit entity in the State of Nevada. At that time, PB & J Leadership Training, Inc. was born, and 2008, received it's 501 (c) 3 status from the IRS.
Over the last three decades, this ever evolving organization has been involved in many volunteer activities, including: Christmas parties for under-privileged children dinners for children with disabilities provided alternative activities to drugs and violence, such as dances, picnics, and football games skits and information seminars for the Boys and Girls Clubs, as well as several Clark County schools charity events, workshops, etc.
