It's Forum Time in D.C.

CADCA's National Leadership Forum XVIII starts today! It is a four-day event for which our staff and volunteers have spent months preparing. Throughout the week, we will have guest bloggers helping us tell you, our readers, about the events from today's pre-conference  and CSAP Community Prevention Day workshops to Tuesday's Capitol Hill Day when our participants will hear from keynote speaker Dr. Drew Pinsky before they "take to the Hill" to encourage their Senators and Representatives to support the ongoing efforts of community anti-drug coalitions.

On Wednesday and Thursday, speakers from around the country will offer workshops in a variety of topic area tracks from sectors and strategy to systems change, state and community relations and science and technology. Throughout some of our country's best and brightest youth will participate in the Summit for Youth Leaders and the National Youth Leadership Initiative.

The Forum is the highlight of every year for our members, guest coalitions and, particularly, for our staff. It is our best opportunity to get to know the inspirational coalition leaders that we work with, often by phone or e-mail, throughout the year. It is our chance--and yours--to put faces to names. 

We hope that you are among the more than 2,500 community leaders participating in this year's Forum. If not, we hope you will enjoy some of the highlights through this blog. Let the Forum begin!

This post was written by Sue Stine, Senior Manager of Dissemination and Coalition Relations for CADCA's National Coalition Institute. Her e-mail address is sstine@cadca.org.