About CADCA's National Coalition Institute

About the Institute

Institute Evaluation
CADCA's National Coalition Institute works continually to help America's community anti-drug coalitions get smarter faster. Evaluation is one of the key elements we encourage coalitions to incorporate into their general operation and each of their initiatives. As such, we believe it is importat for the Institute to "walk the talk" and engage in annual independent evaluation of our activities. Following are the final reports submitted by Dr. Pennie Foster-Fishman of Michigan State University, the Institute's independent evaluator.

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In late September 2002, CADCA was awarded $2 million from the Drug-Free Communities Support Act to establish and administer the National Community Anti-Drug Coalition Institute.

The Institute serves as both a vehicle for coalition-specific substance abuse prevention policy development and a center for coalition training, technical assistance, evaluation, research and capacity building.

The Institute presents an extraordinary opportunity to move the coalition field forward in ways heretofore impossible to achieve, a means to harness the experience and passion of community coalition leaders with the best that researchers and government partners have to offer in terms of evidence-based programming, training, implementation and evaluation. Its mission and objectives are ambitious but very achievable. In short, the Institute will be able to help grow new, stronger and more effective coalitions.

"This award demonstrates a major show of support from Congress and the federal government and recognizes that CADCA provides first-rate advocacy, training, technical assistance and outreach to community anti-drug coalitions across America ," CADCA Chairman and CEO General Arthur T. Dean said when the grant was announced. "This grant will allow us to devote even more resources and attention to coalitions to assist them in meeting the individual needs of their communities."

The Institute is operating as an independent entity, but is linked to CADCA's overall operations. CADCA's current training and technical assistance is now part of the Institute's operations as CADCA moves toward a more efficient and economical delivery system.

Primary Institute Partners:

Mission:

The National Community Anti-Drug Coalition Institute aims to increase the knowledge, capacity and accountability of community anti-drug coalitions throughout the nation.

Logic Model:

Institute Primary Logic Model - Download PDF

Primary Strategies:

Improve coalitions' use of data for needs assessment and strategic planning.
Improve the structure, operation, leadership and sustainability of coalitions.
Support coalitions in their implementation of the principles of effective coalitions and the development and use of evidence-based intervention strategies.
Improve coalitions' ability to track results that measure process and outcomes.

As the Institute carries out these strategies, it will focus on specific targets (e.g., fledgling coalitions, new coalitions in underserved communities) as well as a set of 10 measurable grant objectives to determine the extent to which coalitions served by the Institute adopt specific practices in the areas of assessment, capacity building, program selection and implementation, and evaluation. These practices are designed to help coalitions achieve outcomes through research-based activities.