Please join the “Above the Influence” (ATI) team for the 2013 CADCA Leadership Forum at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD.  The week-long conference is the Nation’s largest meeting for community prevention leaders, treatment professionals, and researchers.

On Thursday, February 7 at 9 a.m., the ATI team will host an adult workshop featuring a panel session of four “Above the Influence” partners that have taken the campaign to the next level.  In this session, participants will learn how their coalition can become partners with this national campaign.  The workshop will facilitate an open discussion on various techniques and ideas on reaching teens today.  Through the “Above the Influence” brand and recent youth research, participants will gain new insights about the latest teen trends, attitudes, and motivations that will provide useful information to assist in developing effective prevention strategies and messages targeting teens.

The partner panel question and answer session will feature partners from across the country, including the following: Sandi Drover, Healthy Peabody Collaborative (Peabody, MA); Diana Ferguson, Essex CHIPS (Essex Junction, VT); Greg Puckett, Community Connections, Inc. (Bluefield, WV); and Victor Ramos, Woonsocket Prevention Coalition (Woonsocket, RI).  These partners will be able to provide first-hand insight into their experience working with this national campaign.

“Above the Influence” also conducted a youth session at the CADCA Leadership Forum on Tuesday, February 5, with approximately 60 teens in attendance.  Session attendees participated in the campaign’s newest youth activity, “Express It.”  This activity calls on teens to create a short skit, song, poem, or dance that educates and inspires them and their peers to live “above the influence.”  Teens were given 20 minutes to develop their creative expression and at the end of the session individuals and groups presented their final products including poems, raps, skits, and spoken word.

Both adult and youth sessions are designed to arm attendees with “Above the Influence” tools and resources to bring prevention messaging back to their respective communities and peers.