National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse
Saving Lives Through Collaborative Action
Start Your Own Awareness Campaign!
Members of NCAPDA’s staff are available to counsel and support individuals or groups who want to heighten awareness of prescription drug abuse in their local communities. In this page, you can learn about specific steps you can take to build an awareness campaign in your community.
1. Find and partner with other community members who are concerned about prescription drug abuse/misuse.
2. Identify existing resources in your community that you can request support from, starting with these:
- Police Department
- Area medical and dental providers
- Agencies focused on Drug and Alcohol education and support
- Marriage and Family Counseling Centers specializing in substance abuse support
- Pain Management specialists
- Pharmacies serving as drop off centers for unused and expired prescription drugs
- Library
- Community service organizations, such as Rotary, Kiwanis, and Soroptimist International
- Educators, from middle school through college
- City/town leaders and administrators
- Area political representatives
- Local business owners
- Local media, online, newspaper, radio, and television
3. Network with the resources that are most supportive and strategize about awareness campaign opportunities.
4. Contact CADCA if you’re interested in establishing a non-profit agency or coalition focused on prescription drug abuse. Request brochures and other information from them to help establish your group and link it to NCAPDA.
5. If your town/city doesn’t have enough prescription drug drop-off sites, work with your local police department to establish them
7. Help coordinate and/or participate in local parent/student education events. Request participation in these from members of our speaker’s bureau by submitting our service request form.
8. Request discussion points and available sample materials from NCAPDA for use in your awareness campaign, or you can download our awareness tools.
9. Conduct local youth-oriented contests, video, poster, T-shirt, etc., to engage students and generate awareness.
10. Connect and work with your local and federal legislative representatives to educate them about the prescription drug abuse epidemic and stimulate and support legislative action that can make a difference.
Please contact us for more details, to answer questions you have, or to request that members of our speaker’s bureau participate in an awareness activity in your community. We love to help!