Our Programs

The National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (National DEC) provides national leadership in developing and training of DEC alliances, DEC policy and procedure development (DEC Approach), and services on behalf of children and families who are in the cycle of substance misuse and neglect.

State, Tribal, Local and Regional DEC Alliances

Multidisciplinary teams of professionals strengthening community awareness and capacity to provide services to children and families affected by parent or caregiver substance misuse.

The growing number of state, tribal, local and regional DEC alliances throughout the country is the cornerstone of the national drug endangered children’s efforts. National DEC provides leadership, resources, strategic planning, training, and technical assistance to DEC alliances and professionals, all designed to help build the capacity and infrastructure of their DEC efforts. The shared vision is healthy, safe children, families and communities.

Our partnerships with state, tribal, and local DEC alliances also allow us to share information on current legal or illegal substance misuse trends and challenges as well as DEC resources, publications, and promising practices. We also facilitate peer-to-peer best practice sharing between DEC alliances so that we learn from each other. Our programs help DEC alliances collaborate and share information effectively, and change practices responsively to meet the needs of children, families and communities.

Our Programs include:

Drug Endangered Children (DEC) Academy

A series of DEC training designed to develop and train DEC Alliances. 

DEC Academy 101: Developing Foundational Knowledge

• DEC Academy 101 Sessions Description
• DEC Academy 101 Promo Video

In development: DEC Development Academy 201 

Training of Trainers

Prepares DEC Alliance members to deliver DEC Awareness and DEC Awareness presentations within their local community or state. This builds awareness, participation and services engagement for children and families. For more information about this training please visit the Training of Trainers page. To discuss scheduling a Training of Trainers contact our staff at: [email protected].

Subject Matter Expertise

Our staff have over 100 years of combined expertise in DEC, substance misuse challenges affecting children and families and all of the corollary effects related to substance misuse: abuse, neglect, developmental challenges, human/sex trafficking and many more. Our staff regularly present at conferences, events, webinars and podcasts. We also have formal partnerships with organizations that have particular expertise that we can engage to meet a wide variety of substance misuse, children and family-related topics.

Technical Assistance

National DEC provides a wide variety of technical assistance to DEC Alliances, local, state and federal agencies, organizations, professionals and associations. Our experience developing multidisciplinary teams allows us to provide detailed assistance related to lifecycle team development, assessment, strategic planning, policy and procedure development and implementation, sustainability, change management, partner and community engagement. Our experience and expertise in trauma and trauma-informed approaches facilities another level of valuable technical assistance to organizations, professionals and associations.

Online Training

National DEC developed a four-part training in partnership with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Visit our Online Training page or download this flyer to review a description of the training that is available to anyone and includes a certificate of completion that can be used to apply for continuing education credits per your organization’s standards. These online training modules have been utilized by thousand of professionals nationwide. We are currently developing additional online, self-paced training modules for release in the near future.

Training & Presentation Schedule

To review our training and presentation schedule please visit our Training & Presentation Schedule page. Contact us to schedule a training or presentation if we are training in a community near you. Every two years we offer a National DEC Conference which will be published on our schedule. This page also provides information about how to reach us to discuss a training, presentation, conference keynote or workshop, event address, podcast or webinar with our staff team.