The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention recognizes and validates this delicate balance between honoring faith traditions and pulling communities together to create healthy living environments for all people. This Training Design Outline is the result of a two-day work group, attended by CSAP staff and representatives from various faith traditions. The intended participants are the faith communities' "gate keepers." These gate keepers can be defined as key leaders, such as Rabbi, Priest, Minister, etc. or other staff person, all of whom may or may not be volunteers. It is acknowledged that persons who occupy these positions are committed, dedicated and often over-extended individuals. It is also acknowledged that sanctioning or legitimizing by these key leaders in Faith Communities is a necessity in order for any substance abuse program to be initiated or for that Faith Community to participate in an existing prevention effort. Because of this the gate keeper may need to designate or delegate participation to another person. This designee should be one who can return to the faith community to effect substance abuse problems within that faith community with the sanction of the gate keeper.
The PURPOSE of this training is to initiate a process by which gate
keepers and key leaders of Faith Communities become competent in knowledge
and skill regarding alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention to effect
change within their own communities of faith and the larger community.
This perspective is broad enough to enable each community to assess their
own needs and to create a response to those needs. The foundation
for this training is effecting social change. An adaptation of the
Everett Rogers' "Diffusion of Innovations" model will serve as the foundation
upon which the process will take place. This model will be the thread
of unity throughout and will continually reinforce the intent to validate
human experience, honor faith, values and traditions, inspire gate keepers
and leaders to acquire knowledge and skills in Substance Abuse Prevention
and eventually effect change within their own communities. This will
be facilitated through an experiential process with the following topics
in module format:
Each of these topics will be addressed as a complete module or,
in some instances, as part of a module with interrelated topics.
The module length will vary according to the topic, and the types of activities,
and the pace of the participants. This process is intended to be
as interactive and experiential as possible to effect the desired outcome:
that Faith Community gate keepers and key leaders initiate a process addressing
the Faith Community's needs regarding substance abuse.