Español | International | Youth Voices | Newsroom | Store | Login
Español | International | Youth Voices | Newsroom | Store | Login
Connected Communities has "officially" reached 1,000 members and we are ecstatic! We've achieved our first goal of connecting coalition leaders from across the U.S. and around the world...But we aren’t ready to rest on our laurels.
Catch phrases are a way of life for advertisers. In the 80s, it was "Where's the Beef?" A decade later, a clever agency joined forces with dozens of celebrities to ask "Got Milk?" In the 2000s, we get statements, not questions. What's being heard most often these days? "There's an app for that."
In this blog post, we look at ways that community anti-drug coalitions can utilize mobile technology to participate in Connected Communities, a peer-to-peer social network.
Everybody's talking about it. Are you on Facebook? Do you Twitter? Did you see the latest viral video on You Tube? And now CADCA asks have you seen Connected Communities? The choices are endless and just when you think you're getting a handle on what's out there--BANG!--a dozen new tools have been introduced. So how do you navigate in a Web 2.0 world when you feel like you're just mastering e-mail?
Often we hear about community organizing and community mobilizing. I never knew there was a difference between the two. Although the two terms seem synonymous, I recently found out that there are some significant differences. Learning the distinction between the two caused me to open my eyes to the intricacies of the many important processes and steps that successful coalitions find innate. I realized that in order to implement strategies to achieve population-level reductions in substance abuse, it is entirely likely that a coalition will need to get large numbers of folks to take action.
Coalitions are well-positioned to change the problem environments that exist within their communities. But to do so, they first must discover the high risk areas that cause alcohol and other drug problems. However, I have noticed that when conducting their community assessment coalition leaders often focus primarily on epidemiological data that provide AOD consumption rates. Such data, as important as they may be, will not give you information on the context or place of substance use in your community.
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America
625 Slaters Lane Suite 300 Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel 1-800-54-CADCA Fax 703-706-0565
