The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-Illinois works with communities to reduce substance abuse among youth and adults

DRUG FREE COMMUNITIES PROGRAM

The primary mission of our Drug Free Communities Program is to reduce substance abuse among youth and adults.  It is designed to engage community leaders in an ongoing effort to better understand local challenges and generate lasting change in the communities.

The NCADD-Illinois Drug Free Communities Program utilizes environmental strategies based on a community systems perspective that views a community as a set of persons engaged in shared social, cultural, political, and economic processes. Environmental strategies are based on the belief that substance abuse is a product of multiple environmental conditions and circumstances. According to this view, individuals do not engage in substance abuse solely on the basis of personal characteristics, but rather as a result of a complex set of factors in their environment. These include: the rules and regulations of the social institutions to which individuals belong, the norms of the communities in which they live, the mass media messages to which they are exposed, and the accessibility of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs. Therefore, effective prevention requires “intervention” in various facets of community life.

NCADD-Illinois can help communities create local coalitions to help reduce substance abuse among their youth and adults.  Using the Strategic Prevention Framework model, NCADD-IL can assist in helping communities assess their problem, build capacity to address the problem, develop a strategic plan, implementation, and evaluation. 

Call (630) 240-1215 today and request to speak to our Drug Free Communities Program specialist or send an email to drugfreecommunities@ncaddillinois.org.