| CICAD
offers training in substance abuse prevention in the English-speaking
Caribbean, and also provides seed funds to countries to support a variety
of drug abuse prevention activities at the local level in schools and
communities.
A
regional training course on the creation of drug abuse
prevention networks was held in Jamaica in June 2002. The course
brought together drug abuse prevention specialists and community
leaders from governmental and non-governmental institutions in
order to design and implement a strategy for the creation of a
Caribbean Regional Drug Abuse Prevention Network.
Follow-up
to the meeting included direct support to countries to carry out
community mobilization activities, as well as the creation and
maintenance of the Caribbean
Prevention Network.
The
Community
Mobilization portion
of the project provided the vital opportunity for participating
countries to put "workshop talk" into action in
concrete ways in their countries. CICAD called for proposals for
small pilot projects that would foment NGO and governmental
collaboration on drug abuse prevention and treatment.
CICAD
then distributed seed funds to sponsor pilot initiatives or key
components of larger initiatives. In all cases funds were
utilized to facilitate collaboration and greater information
exchange between government entities and NGOs or community
groups working in the area of demand reduction. Projects were
supported in the following countries: Antigua
and Barbuda, Bahamas
, Belize
, Dominica,
Grenada
, Jamaica
- National Drug Council, Jamaica
- Addictions Alert, Saint
Lucia
, and Trinidad and Tobago
.
As
a result of the above regional and local activities, the network
of Caribbean professionals was strengthened via the sharing of
materials and increased communication.
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