CADCA is pleased to announce the Call for Presentations for our 26th National Leadership Forum. This four-day conference is practice-based and aims to bring together close to 3,000 participants representing community anti-drug coalitions from all regions of the country and internationally, government leaders, youth, prevention specialists, addiction treatment professionals, addiction recovery advocates, researchers, law enforcement professionals, and faith-based leaders to create and maintain safe, healthy and drug-free communities globally.

The Call for Presentations is open to all community anti-drug coalitions; community-based prevention organizations; government agencies with a focus on substance abuse, mental health, criminal justice, public health, public safety, and related disciplines; coalition sector member organizations; and other organizations with an interest in substance abuse prevention and advocacy. Presentations will be offered during 75-minute workshop periods offered on Tuesday and Thursday of the National Leadership Forum.

The first person presenting in a workshop receives a complimentary registration, the second person receives a discounted speaker rate of $400 and any additional speakers in the course will pay the applicable full rate.

For more information, contact Samantha Moore at forum@cadca.org.

The submission deadline is 11:59 a.m. EST Oct. 13.

To submit a proposal, click here.

To help guide your proposal writing, here are the 2016 National Leadership Forum Training Session Tracks. Training sessions (seventy-five minutes in length) and Ideas Fair Poster Presentations will be programmed in the following thematic tracks and scheduled throughout the conference.

Coalitions: A Collective Impact

The coalition movement has achieved success in applying prevention research to practice through translation, adaptation and fieldwork. Training Sessions will feature coalitions and practitioners who have demonstrative evidence of population-level impact and communities’ stories where they have measured success. This track also will focus on using data to tell your story and convey results; using data findings to justify strategy implementation; developing and utilizing outcome-based logic models; utilization of qualitative data techniques for collecting assessment and outcome data; using the research behind coalition effectiveness to extract lessons learned; and proven approaches for replication of strategies in other communities.

Coalitions: The Leadership Vantage Point

Quality leadership is an essential element for longevity, viability and sustainability of community coalitions and their efforts.  The coalition movement needs leaders representing many walks of life and for many critical responsibilities over vast periods of time if it is to stay in business long enough to make a difference.  Leadership development, performance appraisal and succession planning are natural occurrences in top shelf corporations, business enterprises and outstanding non-profit organizations.  In these hands-on training sessions, coalition leaders will learn to create leadership and succession development and action plans.

Coalitions: Enterprising Successes
Business matters. Notable and sustainable community organizations have learned how to manage the business, not just the program, of their strategic goals. When coalitions take a step back to organize its enterprises and develop a purposeful plan for conducting themselves in a more business-like manner, performance soars. This track will help coalitions organize for success, build bench strength, determine strategic return on investments, and plan for institutionalization of their work into the community’s vision and mission. 

Coalitions: Communicating Influence
Effective messaging, media presence and a reputable public image can magnify your coalition’s prevention expertise. Training sessions will feature principles of message development; messaging campaigns to support strategies; image development and branding; partnership development with media sector; public affairs and media relations; dynamic social media presence; and metrics and measures of media and communications strategies. This track also will teach how to become the media’s source and subject matter expert about drug-related issues.

Coalitions: Landmarks of Collaboration
Place-based strategies allow coalitions to mobilize specific populations with strategies that are relevant and actionable given the geography and culture of the community being mobilized. When a sense of shared space and connectedness exists, significant and lasting community change should occur in ways that celebrate the populations’ distinct cultural and ethnic aspects. This track will feature courses that address both the prospects and challenges of strengthening coalitions in communities with rapidly changing ethnic demographics, American Indian settings, US/Mexico border communities, urban and inner-city core neighborhoods, rural and frontier areas, college campuses, military installations and as well as those addressing the needs of the LGBTQ community.

Coalitions: Powerful Advocates
Coalitions have power because of their large network of drug prevention champions who stand up and speak out. Training sessions will feature engaging policy makers; creating and implementing education and advocacy messages; using media to advance policy and systems change; involving the general public to advance our education and advocacy agenda; and community mobilization tactics.

Coalitions: Cross Sector Significance
Coalitions are capable of coordinating sophisticated cross-system collaborations to bring about community-level change. Courses will feature implementing multi-disciplinary comprehensive community initiatives and addressing nexus issues that impact public health and safety. Scaling for collective impact and cross-sector planning and implementation will be covered.

Coalitions: Dynamic Youth Champions
Youth from across the country are working to keep their communities’ safe, healthy and drug free!  Participants in this track will have the opportunity to increase their skills and knowledge by attending a series of interactive sessions. An emphasis will be placed on progressive strategies for community work and state-of-the art presentation techniques. Proposals of particular interest include those that address comprehensive approaches to youth engagement, youth-led civic change, and engaging youth as change agents to foster systems change. This track is for young people and interested adults.