New Orleans Conference To Equip Recovering Community With Technical Skills For Constituency Building

National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence
Thursday, 31 August 2000

Recognizing that rapidly evolving communication tools offer an unprecedented opportunity to facilitate constituency building on a national scale, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD) and Join Together will sponsor "Mobilizing Recovery Through Technology," a skills-enhancing conference in New Orleans from October 21-23.

"Recovering individuals have been an underutilized resource in the development of services for people who are still addicted to alcohol and other drugs," observed NCADD president Stacia Murphy. "At this conference, the first of its kind, they will be able to share their collective experience in building local constituencies as well as acquire state-of-the art technical skills for broadening their influence well beyond their home bases."

H. Westley Clark, MD, director of the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT); David Lewis, MD, Director of the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University; and William L. White, author of Slaying The Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America will be among the featured speakers at "Mobilizing Recovery Through Technology," which is being supported by CSAT under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Conference workshops will be organized along four concurrent tracks-- Advocacy, Organizing, Critical Populations and Treatment Improvement--and cover such topics as "Creative Uses of Electronic Technology;" "The Power of Stories: Putting a Face on Recovery;" "Lessons from the Mental Health Advocacy Movement;" and "Best Practices Through The Internet." A special "Learning Lab," guided by information technology experts, will be open to all participants throughout the conference and will include multiple computers with live internet connections. Complete details about the conference schedule and workshop content can be accessed by clicking here.

A $75 registration fee is required for "Mobilizing Recovery Through Technology," which will immediately follow NCADD's Conference of Affiliates at the Holiday Inn Downtown-Superdome.

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. fights the stigma and the disease of alcoholism and other drug addictions. Founded in 1944 by Marty Mann, the first woman to find long-term sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous, NCADD provides education, information, help and hope to the public. It advocates prevention, intervention and treatment through offices in New York and Washington, and a nationwide network of Affiliates.

For more information, or to contact National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence, see their website at: www.ncadd.org