Thrives’ Director, Meg Gonzalez, and Community Project Coordinator, Jacob Deutsch, recently completed the National Coalition Academy, a comprehensive training program administered by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA). This year-long program was designed to help organizations like Thrives “master the core competencies and essential processes needed to build and maintain highly effective prevention coalitions.”
Official confirmation and an invitation to the graduation ceremony held in Washington, DC., is pending, and a press release will be sent to our local news outlets – so this is your spoiler alert!
Why should you care? We hope this training will help Thrives serve you better. As part of the program, we took a deep dive into better understanding the towns we serve. We looked at history, demographics, data, town plans and talked with local residents and business owners to better understand the context within which our coalition works and the local conditions influencing substance use by young people. We gleaned ideas from other coalitions around the country and we created tools to help plan, implement, evaluate and sustain our work.
Our goal in 2022, is to take these tools “on the road” to get feedback from those most qualified to give it, you, the residents of the towns we serve. Please consider inviting us to a meeting to share our ideas for helping the youth in your town thrive! Contact us at wrvthrives@gmail.com.