The Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug & Alcohol Commission (AICDAC) provides alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and problem gambling prevention and education services at no cost to all organizations/community groups in Clarion County.
Now, more than ever, prevention programming is an essential component to our youth’s education providing protective factors from kindergarten through 12th grade to promote safe addiction-free living. AICDAC also offers awareness programs for professionals, parents, and senior citizens.
Special presentations that may be requested, but not limited to: Tobacco, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Awareness Month, Prom/Graduation season, and teacher in-service days. Presentations are customizable based on each school, agency, or community needs. AICDAC also provides FREE educational materials for teachers to use during drug, alcohol, tobacco, and gambling lessons upon request.
AICDAC maximizes prevention service delivery based on identified needs and risk factors. There are Six Federal Categories:
Information Dissemination: activities that provide awareness and knowledge of substance use and the impact on the individual, family, and community. Prevention provides this service through community health fairs and presentations, media campaigns, public service announcements, social media campaigns, informational pamphlets brochures, and video distribution.
Education: provide curriculum services to schools and community members utilizing evidence based (research and evaluation to be deemed effective in reducing substance use) and evidence informed (using the best available research and knowledge to guide implementation) substance use prevention programming. These programs focus on social emotional skills, decision making skills, substance use refusal skills and understanding the effects of substance use.
Alternative Activities: These are activities that exclude the use of substances, examples of these services include our Trunk or Treat event, Youth Leadership Conference and Recovery Recognition events.
Problem Identification & Referral: aim at identifying those who have indulged in illegal and/or age-inappropriate use of tobacco and alcohol and those individuals who have experienced first use of illicit drugs in order to assess if their behavior can be reversed through education. Some of these programs include Underage Users’ group, Student Assistance Program, and various community/parental requesting for information and training.
Community-Based Process: aimed at enhancing the ability of the community to provide and participate in prevention services more effectively. These include presentations in the community to educate the general population on substance use trends and prevention.
Environmental: attempt to establish or change written and unwritten community standards, codes, and attitudes to influence incidence and prevalence of the substance use in the general population. Prevention staff spend direct service hours participating in various committees and coalitions and in contacting local legislatures, school superintendents, and public officials.
The prevention department also works with Clarion County’s Overdose Task Force and Clarion Drug Free Coalition team. These groups work to reduce substance use within each community. Working on multiple fronts, Clarion Drug Free Coalition works to tackle the substance abuse issue within Clarion County with a comprehensive approach including many programs and strategies that are free to the community.
Prevention services are provided through AICDAC’s contract with the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.
Please call 814-226-6350 or email jnorthey@aicdac.org for more information about prevention programming and implementation.
More information can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/clariondrugfree or online at www.aicdac.org.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, help is available, and recovery is possible by calling 814-226-6350. Services are free and confidential.
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