By Julie Summers
Special to the Islands’ Weekly
Members of the Lopez Island Prevention Coalition and the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition are in Washington, D.C. this week for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s National Leadership Forum. For the 22nd year, CADCA is bringing together nearly 3,000 people for the nation’s largest training for substance abuse prevention and treatment professionals.
Forum attendees will have the opportunity to choose from over 100 training courses that will provide skills and strategies for preventing substance use and addressing related problems. They will also hear from keynote speakers, including Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and will have the chance to meet senators and members of Congress during CADCA’s Capitol Hill Day.
The San Juan County delegates include LIPC and SJIPC Executive Coordinators Georgeana Cook and Cynthia Stark-Wickman, as well as two 2011 Lopez graduates, Teddy McCullough and Alex Cook. These four have been chosen as presenters and will offer a workshop on mentoring for success and sustainability.
McCullough was recently announced as this year’s winner of CADCA’s Outstanding Youth Leader Award and will be recognized in a ceremony during the forum. He is a student at American University. In January, he began an internship with the ONDCP. Alex Cook received the Outstanding Youth Leader Award last year.
“Each year, only one recipient is chosen out of nominees across the country, so it’s remarkable that two youth from our tiny island have won the award back-to-back,” said Georgeana Cook. “The forum will be a great opportunity to honor Teddy’s achievements, to network with other coalitions, and to gain knowledge and skills that we can bring back to Lopez and implement in our community.”
CADCA is a national membership organization representing over 5,000 coalitions and affiliates working to make communities safe, healthy, and drug-free. CADCA’s mission is to strengthen the capacity of community coalitions by providing technical assistance and training, public policy advocacy, media strategies and marketing programs, conferences, and special events. To learn more about CADCA and the National Leadership Forum, visit www.cadca.org.
