Mission Statement: 

The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council of Delaware County (ADAC) is dedicated to the prevention of alcohol and substance abuse by providing education, information, and referral services.

Values:

Understanding: Alcoholism & addiction are treatable diseases.

Accessibility: ADAC services are open to everyone without stigma; individuals, families, youth, adults, seniors, businesses, and schools.

Advocacy: Advocating for those in recovery who cannot (or choose not) to speak for themselves is vital

Effectiveness: Prevention works for all youth, adults, and seniors.

Partnership: Community partnerships are key to a healthy community. 

Vision:

We envision a future where ADAC, Inc. is a powerful community resource and partner whose effective core services reach youth, adults, and seniors throughout Delaware County. The Council will vigorously advocate for change in individuals, families, and communities, resulting in healthy, positive choices. 

Prevention:

Prevention is a blue print to health.  If we want health, we must promote health – in our homes, schools, and communities. 

Prevention is not only the education of alcohol and drugs and its effects on the body, family, and community - it also encompasses character education. Character education explores the feelings and the motivations behind behavior. When one learns skills on how to effectively communicate, how to acknowledge and regulate emotions, who they can go to for help, etc. it empowers them to make healthy choices. Prevention focuses on the well-being of an individual and community and equips them with knowledge, skills, and support so that they can live a healthy and full life.

Prevention education is important because it provides our community with skills and knowledge on how to avoid, stop or get help for substance misuse before it gets out of hand.

It helps us learn new strategies and skills to create a healthy outcome in our lives.  These approaches can help us at any age; while we are still growing or when we realize we want a safer, healthier outcome for our life and the old way of doing things is no longer serving us. Challenging ourselves with new, healthier skills helps us build resilience and supports our overall well-being.

Prevention is education for all. Community. Family. Friends.  We have the knowledge to make helpful decisions so we need to use it. Prevention Education offers people of all ages the ability to learn about substances, situations they may find themselves in involving substances and gives them the confidence to respond positively and effectively either in the moment or by helping someone else make a safe decision. Prevention Education is not a one-time and you’re done thing; it needs to be cultivated and re-visited often. Only through consistent Prevention Education can people stay aware of the constantly changing world of substance use and misuse. It should be a key component in every school, in every grade level to build a strong foundation so that our youth can make educated, sound decisions. Substance misuse can hurt individuals, families, and communities –and it can be financially costly.  

Research has shown that for each dollar invested in evidence based prevention programming, between $2 and $30 dollars can be saved in substance treatment costs, which have risen to $193 billion annually in the United States alone (source: The Office of National Drug control Policy).

The impact of Prevention on individuals’ lives, systems (e.g. schools), communities, and society can increase exponentially with additional investment of resources and systems to support the development, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based programs and policies. 

Enough damage has been done over the years. Why wait until the damage has been done to try and recover what we’ve lost? Prevention is for everyone. It helps those who don't know learn and it helps those who have already made harmful decisions to not repeat the same mistakes.

Answer this question for yourself: Do you want to wait until a loved one has made harmful decisions with substance use to try and help them recover or would you rather help them now and prevent those bad things from ever happening?

Don't be Reactive. BE PROACTIVE!

Here at ADAC we believe in being pro-active by using research-based, data-driven, proven-effective strategies and programs to promote health in our community.