How to Join
Community Efforts

Connect with others in your community and get involved in local efforts to address the opioid epidemic in North Carolina. Remember: together, we are more powerful than opioids, and we can all help end the epidemic.

Find groups who are working to address the opioid epidemic in your area with this map and county list.

Community Strategies to
Address the Epidemic

Community coalitions and local governments are using a wide range of innovative strategies to address the opioid epidemic. The best strategies are supported by data and an understanding of effective prevention strategies.

Community-based strategies to address the opioid epidemic include: 

For additional resources, see this Menu of Local Actions to Prevent Opioid Overdose in NC or visit the Rx Awareness campaign and Operation Prevention.

How Can Communities
Be Most Effective?

Community efforts are most effective in addressing substance misuse when these things happen:

  • When community efforts are supported by data.
  • When community efforts incorporate prevention basics.
  • When everyone with a stake in addressing drug misuse is at the table, working together. This includes government, business, healthcare, education, law enforcement, citizens, and other stakeholders.
  • When they undertake a careful, systematic process that includes assessing needs, building capacity, developing a plan, implementing the plan and evaluating whether the plan is working. This process is called the Strategic Prevention Framework. Learn more here.

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) is a valuable resource for community coalitions. Learn more on their website here.

CADCA has produced a series of free downloadable “primers” explaining the Strategic Prevention Framework in user-friendly terms:

NC Association of County Commissioners
The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners started the County Leadership Forum on Opioid Abuse to engage local elected leaders in an informed discussion about the opioid epidemic, as well as develop collaborative strategies that enhance prevention, education and treatment. Learn more here.

To learn more about proven community-based strategies, visit Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development or the Search Institute.

To learn more about community coalitions, visit Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), or the Surgeon General website.