CADCA Ambassador Program for Young Adults

Drug abuse prevention coalitions can help achieve significant reductions in a community’s substance abuse rates, but they need the skills and training in order to do so. To answer the call to help strengthen coalitions, especially in economically challenged communities, CADCA designed the Ambassador Program, which is an initiative to help increase the number of young adult coalition workforce leaders in the coalition field.

The program, which is run by CADCA’s National Coalition Institute, is designed to apply an immediate and intentional impact on anti-drug coalitions in underserved communities.

For this initiative, 15 people will be selected to participate in the program. Those selected will serve for a period of up to two years — a commitment for people interested in exploring the community coalition field as a career path. Applicants should be between 18-30 years of age.

The program will accept applications from nominees recruited from substance abuse prevention coalitions and those that address conditions associated with the use of substances.  Each will receive extensive training at no cost to his/her related community coalition.

Janine Payne, MPH, who manages the Ambassador Program, said the program came about after conducting assessments with coalitions and identifying areas where strong community coalition leaders are needed most. “CADCA translates what we learn from coalitions to bring innovative programs and products to increase knowledge and capacity of prevention coalitions. When poverty and substance abuse data are translated they become the faces of real people — our neighbors, family members and friends from rural, urban areas and reservations across the country,” she said. 

The application is available online.

Program enrollment priority will be given to coalitions located in areas in which 20 percent or more of the children are living in a household below the poverty line, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. The deadline is May 29, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST.

For more information about CADCA’s Ambassador Program, contact Janine Payne at 1-800-54-CADCA, Ext. 238, or via e-mail at jpayne@cadca.org.