Who we are...
ADAPAO is a not-for-profit, membership-based association that serves as the voice of alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention in Ohio. ADAPAO provides a unified voice for prevention in many ways, including:
▪ Providing cutting edge training and education for prevention advocates.
▪ Organizing advocacy campaigns to empower Ohioans and reduce the impact of alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse in our communities.
▪ Networking community leaders dedicated to prevention.
▪ Speaking to the Ohio Legislature and others on bills, initiatives and activities affecting prevention and alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse in Ohio.
Vision
Ohioans united to champion the advancement of alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention.
Mission
ADAPAO employs the power of dialogue, networking and advocacy to amplify a unified voice for alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention in Ohio.
History
The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Association of Ohio was founded over 25 years ago by Ohioans who supported alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse prevention. Members ranged from prevention practitioners and professionals in other fields to community members and volunteers who saw the need for an association to advocate for prevention.
Led by a volunteer board of directors, ADAPAO hit the ground running, creating a monthly newsletter for its membership, developing position papers on prevention topics, and providing networking opportunities for members. The founders viewed the association’s primarily role as one of advocacy: creating change by influencing decision-makers through the power of numbers. That advocacy has taken the form of testifying before legislative bodies, educating professionals and the general public about prevention, and convening stakeholders to address issues relevant to prevention.
One of the association’s early successes was bringing together the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services and the Ohio Department of Education to cosponsor a new educational offering for community- and school-based prevention practitioners and advocates – the Ohio Prevention Education Conference, otherwise known as OPEC.
ADAPAO has also been a leading provider of critical education, training and dialogue on prevention issues within our state. In the early 1990s, ADAPAO developed and instituted the New Prevention Professionals conferences, created to give novice prevention practitioners a solid background in prevention theory and models. ADAPAO revisited that concept in 2001 by creating the Effective Prevention Practitioner Conference.
For many years, ADAPAO’s Annual Conference has been the premier dialogue-based prevention education summit within Ohio. The annual conference focuses on a specific topic – marijuana as medicine, alcohol abuse across the lifespan, and prescription drug abuse have been among the foci in recent years – and provides an in-depth educational environment for prevention professionals and advocates to learn, engage with expert presenters, and dialogue with their peers on these key prevention issues.
Since its inception, ADAPAO has maintained a reputation as an independent, unapologetic voice for prevention. As a membership organization, the association’s mission, activities and funding have been driven by its members, who view ADAPAO as their voice and mechanism to constantly strive for the advancement of prevention for all Ohioans. That motivation has fueled ADAPAO’s work for more than 25 years and promises to maintain it for many years to come.
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