CADCA To Help Communities In Italy Prevent And Reduce Substance Abuse Problems

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Apr 09, 2013, 01:07 ET

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Based on its more than 20-year history of training communities to address substance abuse and its associated problems, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) has formed a new partnership with Italy's Department for Antidrug Policies to begin building community anti-drug coalitions in two major cities – Rome and Bologna. These coalitions will use CADCA's evidence-based community problem-solving model to reduce substance abuse rates and associated problems, with a special focus on environmental strategies.

The coalitions will target several specific areas of Rome and of Bologna, with the goal of reducing drug use, drug-related traffic accidents, smuggling and organized crime and the number of drug-related arrests in the targeted communities. Through this new partnership, Italian officials and CADCA hope to implement successful substance abuse prevention strategies that can be applied to other regions of Italy.

"For two decades, CADCA's evidence-based community problem solving model has trained community coalitions throughout the United States and in 17 countries to develop and enforce laws and policies, create safer neighborhoods and change community norms with the end goal of reducing substance abuse," said CADCA Chairman and CEO Gen. Arthur T. Dean. "We are pleased to be working with the Italian government on this pilot project. Through this new initiative, we hope to empower local community leaders by helping them identify and implement strategies to address their local substance abuse problems."

"We believe that the collaboration with CADCA will be very useful for prevention programs in Italy," said Giovanni Serpelloni, Head of Italy's Department for Anti-Drug Policies. "The sharing of the different methodologies and informative material will be able to make a great benefit for the programs of both organizations, because we believe that only through collaboration we can achieve more effective interventions against the use of drugs among young people."

In addition to is U.S.-based work, CADCA has been working internationally to train and build community anti-drug coalitions since 2004. Currently, CADCA works in several countries in Latin America, Africa, and Central and Southeast Asia. In addition, CADCA is one of a few U.S.-based non-government organizations (NGO) that have consultative status with the United Nations and is a member of the Vienna NGO Committee. Over the years, the international community has become familiar with the coalition strategy through CADCA's international activities. The work in Italy marks CADCA's first foray into the European continent.

For more information about CADCA's international work, visit http://www.cadca.org/international.

CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) is the national member-based organization representing coalitions working to make America's communities safe, healthy and drug-free. CADCA's mission is to strengthen the capacity of community coalitions to create and maintain safe, healthy and drug-free communities globally. To learn more about CADCA, visit www.cadca.org. For more on the campaign, visit http://drugfreekids.cadca.org.

Media Contact: Natalia Martinez Duncan
703-706-0560, Ext. 256

SOURCE CADCA