Stage 1: Awareness about Drug Endangered Children 

One of the key components of the drug endangered children mission is a clear understanding of the risks that children face when their caregivers are engaged in drug activity and substance misuse. This knowledge highlights the need for collaborative efforts to help these children and their families and motivates practitioners to look at how they can do their jobs differently to increase the chances of better outcomes for drug endangered children, families, and the communities they serve. Enhancing awareness about drug endangered children is an ongoing part of the DEC mission and it provides the foundation for taking action to implement and sustain the collaborative DEC Approach.

To build awareness of the issues of facing drug endangered children, information must be disseminated in a variety of formats. National DEC has developed training, brochures, publications, fact sheets, and other information to assist practitioners and communities in providing awareness. The following are some examples that will assist in spreading awareness.

• Distribute—throughout the community—print or email copies of National DEC’s Brochure, which provides a brief overview of National DEC. Further information can be provided through the About National DEC sheet and What is the DEC Mission? sheet.
• National DEC’s state and local alliances have also created awareness items for dissemination that may be helpful to others, including:
  • Carbon County, Wyoming, DEC Alliance Brochure
  • Missouri DEC Information Card
  • Missouri DEC Brochure
  • Okaloosa County, Florida, DEC Brochure
  • Tennessee DEC Brochure
  • Wisconsin State DEC Alliance Brochure
• For caregivers, National DEC created a fact sheet that explains What Caregivers Should Know.  This sheet provides those that may care for children exposed to substance abuse or drug activity information about these children and what they might experience.

Annual DEC Awareness Day

National DEC and its network of state, tribal, and local DEC alliances, along with other professionals across the nation, have designated the fourth Wednesday of April for focusing on drug endangered children awareness. On this day, individuals, agencies, disciplines, and communities across the United States and Canada come together with a common vision to help provide awareness on what issues and risks drug endangered children face and what can be done to identify, protect, and help these children. National DEC developed an informational sheet to provide further information about DEC Awareness Day and provides examples and ideas. Ideas for Promoting an Annual DEC Awareness Day

Training

Training is one of the best ways to bring awareness around an issue. National DEC offers free trainings for professionals and community members to take at their convenience; these trainings can be shared through email and social media to encourage participation. See National DEC’s free online trainings here.

For a fee, National DEC provides many other trainings to help develop awareness, guide, and support DEC efforts.

DEC Academy 101: Developing Foundational Knowledge

• The purpose of this academy is to support state, regional, tribal, and local communities or individuals in developing and building their efforts, as well as establishing alliances for drug endangered children by providing training, technical assistance, and coaching sessions. The 5-session academy consists of 2-hour sessions plus the opportunity for one targeted coaching session. Sessions include Orientation and Online Training Modules, DEC Awareness, DEC Approach, Marijuana: The Danger Remains, and Intersection of DEC and Human Trafficking.

Roadmap and Toolkit Academy

• This Academy focuses on how to implement the DEC Roadmap and Toolkit to enhance and build DEC efforts and a multidisciplinary DEC Alliance. The DEC Roadmap and Toolkit focuses on three stages: Awareness, Implementation and Institutionalization. This Academy will help prepare participants for each stage when your alliance is ready to move forward. Some of the steps, handouts and resources will not be used directly with your alliance during the 8-session Academy as your alliance may not be at that stage during the academy, but will be utilized during the further development of the alliance. The information learned and access to the resource portal will allow your alliance to develop and grow at its own pace. Participants of the Academy will be provided training as well as gain access to the National DEC Roadmap and Toolkit resources and handouts portal. They will receive weekly support and coaching from National DEC Staff throughout the 8-session Academy. The Academy sessions include Roadmap and Toolkit Introduction, Capacity Building and Collaboration, Awareness Stage, Awareness Coaching, Implementation Stage, Implementation Coaching, Institutionalization State, Institutionalization Coaching.

DEC Awareness Training

• The DEC Awareness Training helps participants gain awareness about drug endangered children, the risks they face and the long-term impacts; understand the many opportunities to identify children at risk; learn the importance of early identification and intervention to change the trajectories of the lives of drug endangered children and break multigenerational cycles.

Intersection of DEC and HT

• During this introductory training, participants will learn and understand the connections between drug and endangered children and human trafficking which are often overlooked by many disciplines. Definitions, statistics and case examples will be shared to help participants recognize the vulnerabilities, understand the intersections, and what can be done to identify and intervene.

National DEC Staff provides trainings at training events, conferences, community meetings, and other venues. See our available Trainings and Technical Assistance page to learn more about what we can offer. To schedule a training email [email protected].

Through our Training of Trainers course, National DEC also certifies practitioners to be DEC Trainers who can provide DEC Awareness Training in their communities. To learn more about a Training of Trainers Course email [email protected].

Identify Leadership, Disciplines, and Agencies to be involved in a DEC Alliance

Any community member or anyone from any discipline or profession can initiate a local DEC effort, but it cannot be done alone. Searching for potential, experienced practitioners whose work could aid local efforts to identify, protect, and serve drug endangered children requires creative, collaborative thinking. Remember, everyone has something to offer; you may be surprised by the people or disciplines who are able to assist the most.

The more practitioners and disciplines involved, the more effective and the greater impact a local DEC effort will have. However, there is likely to be a smaller group of key partners and motivated practitioners who will dedicate the time and energy to getting a local DEC alliance up and running.

To help identify potential partners, National DEC created a worksheet that can be used throughout DEC efforts. This tool, along with many other beneficial tools and resources are made available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected].

Assess Your Community

Take a look at the needs of your community to identify specific issues that need to be addressed and resources available to assist with DEC efforts. National DEC recommends completing a community assessment to gather and analyze relevant data, identify areas where there are gaps and where there are strengths, and then start to identify areas to focus on next. The assessment should be conducted through a local DEC alliance or professionals working on DEC efforts to compile data from multiple disciplines to show how substance abuse is impacting children and families in communities. Once gathered and completed, the assessment can be disseminated with the approval of your supervisor. National DEC’s Drug Endangered Children Community Assessment, along with many other beneficial tools and resources are made available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected].

Connect with National DEC

Practitioners can connect with National DEC in a variety of ways for a variety of things. National DEC’s website includes information on upcoming training and webinars, and information on state and local DEC alliances, as well as ways to ask questions, request DEC training and contact National DEC staff. Practitioners can also connect via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to obtain a wide array of information on drug activity and substance abuse and the risks they pose to children, families, and communities. 

Stage 2: Implementation of a Collaborative Approach to Helping Drug Endangered Children

One of the primary goals of the DEC mission is to make individual practitioners, disciplines, agencies, and systems effective in responding to drug endangered children and the related issues of abuse and neglect, trauma, violence, and human trafficking that they may be experiencing. Building on awareness of the true risks and challenges faced by drug endangered children – the next step is taking action by truly collaborating with other disciplines and making changes to how practitioners do their jobs.

Because drug activity and substance misuse impacts all communities and the DEC mission engages practitioners from so many different disciplines, the DEC Approach has a community-wide impact. As you implement the DEC Approach it is important to continue to reach out to your community. Connect with those who have been provided brochures you have previously developed and disseminated. Ask them for input on how to improve them and what additional information is needed. Consider what continuing education you might be able to offer to help your community take the next step in their DEC efforts and education. Think about which disciplines you need to build a stronger partnership with and provide more training and outreach to those groups; help connect them to your existing DEC alliance of professionals.

Continue DEC Awareness Training In-Person or Virtually

The DEC Awareness training is intended for all professionals working to help drug endangered children, which aligns with National’s DEC mission of forming multidisciplinary partnerships that take advantage of existing agency personnel, resources, and responsibilities and that coordinate their mutual interests and duties to meet the specific needs of these children. Assisting these children and addressing their needs does not conclude until the child is in a permanent, safe, and positive functioning environment. With the National DEC mission in mind, the DEC Awareness Training looks at the risks and long-term impact of drug endangered children, overcoming the challenges of aligning the agencies and systems responsible for preventing, intervening, and treating these issues to change the trajectories of the lives of drug endangered children and break multigenerational cycles of abuse and neglect.

National DEC Staff provides DEC Awareness Training at training events, conferences, community meetings, and other venues. To schedule a DEC Awareness Training email [email protected]

Continue to Identify and Engage Leadership, Disciplines, Agencies, and Stakeholders

Drug activity and substance misuse impact all of our communities, and the DEC Approach engages professionals from many different disciplines and has a community-wide impact. As you implement DEC efforts, it is important to ask yourself how you are reaching out to your community. This is a great time to think about and develop brochures and information to distribute throughout your community as well as to other disciplines.

As part of community outreach, it is important to continue to identify and engage community stakeholders who should be involved in your local DEC efforts. Remember, everyone has something to offer; you may be surprised by the people or disciplines who are able to assist the most. Review the data and information gathered from the worksheet. How has the awareness around drug endangered children impacted the efforts, services, and actions of all disciplines involved? Discuss this with your alliance, what are the next steps needed to be taken? Continually check back and gather information to regularly discuss and adjust your DEC efforts as needed. This tool, along with many other beneficial tools and resources are made available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected].

Provide DEC Approach “Moving from Awareness to Action” Training

This training is provided is provided by National DEC staff at a community, regional, or state level. It focuses on how to implement the DEC Approach, which is a comprehensive strategy based on a common vision, ongoing collaboration between various disciplines and agencies, and ongoing changes in practice. This DEC Approach has proven to be effective in improving the likelihood of better outcomes for drug endangered children. The training provides insights about how various practitioners—including child welfare professionals, law enforcement officers, court and judicial professionals, prosecutors, probation and parole officers, medical personnel, educators, and treatment providers—are in a position to identify, protect, and serve drug endangered children and their families.

The trainers discuss the identification of risks to drug endangered children and what all disciplines can look for when collecting evidence and information on drug endangered children. The trainers use pictures and video of real DEC scenarios to assist professionals in understanding what to look for regarding the “life of the child.” The training includes trainer-led discussions and hands-on exercises to demonstrate how implementing collaboration enhances the likelihood of better outcomes for drug endangered children.

Complete and Disseminate the Community Assessment

Sharing a community assessment with your alliance members, community leaders and members of other disciplines informs, builds awareness and engages them in the work of your DEC alliance. It may help in identifying and securing funding for your alliance’s DEC efforts. Our Community Assessment tool along with many other beneficial tools and resources are made available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected].

Identify, Develop, and Implement DEC Promising Practices

Checklists

• Checklists are very useful tools to put procedures and policies into practice. They can help ensure that key steps, pieces of evidence, contacts, or other information are not missed when dealing with cases involving drug endangered children. National DEC has developed several checklists that can be used for different agencies and then shared with partner agencies. They provide various disciplines with guidance in gathering important information. You receive access to our checklists along with many other beneficial tools and resources are made available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected]. 

Publications

National DEC has released publications that will assist law enforcement and their partners in their DEC efforts. These publications can be ordered through the COPS Office and sent to you for free. Or you can read them below.

Collaboration between community partners to identify and solve problems then implement effective organizational changes is what community policing and DEC efforts are all about. It is our hope that these guides will be a useful tool for law enforcement and other practitioners who want to get involved in the DEC mission by helping build a foundation of strong partnerships with a focus on the child.

DEC Guide for Law Enforcement  (Updated 2020) 

DEC Guide for Law Enforcement Key Insights for partnering with child welfare, medical providers, treatment providers, prosecutors, and civil attorneys

DEC Promising Practices Guide

Tools

• National DEC and its network have developed and created other tools to assist professionals in DEC efforts. Here are some of those for your use:

  • Drug and Alcohol Use During Pregnancy Brochure
  • Developmental Consequences of Fetal Exposure to Parental Drug Use
  • Making an Effective Call to the Child Welfare Reporting Hotline
  • Other one-page tools and resources are made available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected].

Websites

National DEC has encouraged and helped both state and local alliances in setting up websites in order to provide information to a broad audience. Some of these include the following:

• Kansas state DEC Alliance website: http://www.kansas-dec.org/

Social Media Sites

National DEC encourages and can help both state and local alliances in setting up social media sites in order to spread the word.

• https://www.facebook.com/CarbonCountyDEC/
• https://www.facebook.com/CIdecalliance/
• https://www.facebook.com/Tioga-County-Drug-Endangered-Children-Alliance-684431375325695/

Handle with Care

This promising practice tool was developed under the umbrella of West Virginia State DEC Alliance. It started out to ensure that children were getting identified by law enforcement when a traumatic incident occurred. Law enforcement officers would send a “handle with care” notice to the child’s school to inform them that the child had experienced a trauma in their life, which kept the school staff informed and enabled them to provide necessary intervention. National DEC’s local alliances have since expanded on this practice to include various other disciplines to identify children as early as possible, as not all children are involved with law enforcement and may be missed if law enforcement is the only discipline involved. Now, children are being identified by other community partners and disciplines that are alliance trained and children are being identified earlier and provided support through the education system.

• Carbon County, Wyoming Brochure
• Bristol County, Massachusetts Brochure
• Tioga County, Pennsylvania Brochure

QR codes

A QR code is an image that a smartphone user can scan with a free app and immediately be sent to a website. As a promising practice tool for DEC, one of the Florida Local DEC alliances created a QR code to provide people with emergency information quickly, including crisis information. Others have linked QR codes to their DEC websites or other websites. These codes can be printed on stickers that can be placed on clipboards or even police cars, on handouts for events, or just on a small card to hand to those in need.

• Okaloosa County, Florida DEC Alliance QR Code
• Okaloosa County, Florida DEC Alliance Resource QR Code
• Bristol County Massachusetts Handle with Care QR Code

Mobile applications

Mobile applications put information in the palm of users. They can be a great way of connecting your DEC alliance and community leaders, sharing information and resources with your community and much more. You can download National DEC’s CheckDEC mobile app for free. To learn more click HERE.

Stay Connected with National DEC

Practitioners can connect with National DEC in a variety of ways for a variety of things. National DEC’s website includes information on upcoming training and webinars, and information on state and local DEC alliances, as well as ways to ask questions, request DEC training and contact National DEC staff. Practitioners can also connect via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to obtain a wide array of information on drug activity and substance abuse and the risks they pose to children, families, and communities.

Stage 3: Institutionalization of Drug Endangered Children Efforts

To maintain the benefits of awareness about the risks faced by drug endangered children and implementing the collaborative DEC Approach, National DEC recommends the creation of Local DEC Alliances.  Formalizing the collaborative working relationships developed under the DEC Approach with a DEC Alliance will bring the local practitioners together on a regular basis for ongoing review, assessment, and enhancements of their DEC efforts.  A Local DEC Alliance provides a mechanism for sustaining cross-disciplinary and inter-agency collaboration and facilitates ongoing changes in policies and practices. The collaboration and changes in the ways the various disciplines and agencies perform their work can be spelled out in protocols and memorandums of understanding (MOUs).

Continue DEC Awareness Training In-Person or Virtually

This training is intended for all professionals working to help drug endangered children, which aligns with National’s DEC mission of forming multidisciplinary partnerships that take advantage of existing agency personnel, resources, and responsibilities and that coordinate their mutual interests and duties to meet the specific needs of these children. With the National DEC mission in mind, the DEC Awareness Training looks at the risks and long-term impact of drug endangered children, overcoming the challenges of aligning the agencies and systems responsible for preventing, intervening, and treating these issues to change the trajectories of the lives of drug endangered children and break multigenerational cycles of abuse and neglect.

National DEC Staff provides DEC Awareness Training at training events, conferences, community meetings, and other venues. To schedule a DEC Awareness Training email [email protected].

For those that are looking to go deeper into various topics, National DEC developed 4 modules of free online training. Learn more about the online training here.

Continue DEC Approach Training

This training is provided by National DEC staff at a community, regional, or state level. It focuses on how to implement the DEC Approach, which is a comprehensive strategy based on a common vision, ongoing collaboration between various disciplines and agencies, and ongoing changes in practice. This DEC Approach has proven to be effective in improving the likelihood of better outcomes for drug endangered children. The training provides insights about how various practitioners—including child welfare professionals, law enforcement officers, court and judicial professionals, prosecutors, probation and parole officers, medical personnel, educators, and treatment providers—are in a position to identify, protect, and serve drug endangered children and their families.

The trainers discuss the identification of risks to drug endangered children and what all disciplines can look for when collecting evidence and information on drug endangered children. The trainers use pictures and videos of real DEC scenarios to assist professionals in understanding what to look for regarding the “life of the child.” The training includes trainer-led discussions and hands-on exercises to demonstrate how implementing collaboration enhances the likelihood of better outcomes for drug endangered children.

Host a Roadmap and Toolkit Academy

National DEC’s Roadmap and Toolkit Academy local community partners about the benefits of forming local DEC alliances that formalize working relationships between the professionals who are involved with drug endangered children and their families. The academy focuses on providing local practitioners with the proven specific steps and techniques to establish a formal drug endangered children alliance.

Through this academy, National DEC’s experienced trainers lead discussions and activities with the participants about who should be at the table to help form a local DEC alliance, about the challenges of collaboration and sustaining that collaboration, and about the benefits of changing practices and procedures on an ongoing basis to benefit drug endangered children. The training assists practitioners of various disciplines in discussing as well as developing protocols and memoranda of understanding (MOU) to assist in institutionalizing DEC efforts and responses within each community. The material in this very practical training is based on the experiences of successful local DEC alliances in various jurisdictions across the country, including tribal communities.

Provide Training of Trainers

National DEC has developed a Training of Trainers Course to certify trainers to train alliance partners in the DEC Awareness and the DEC Approach “Moving from Awareness to Action” training. This program ensures that DEC efforts will be sustained and institutionalized locally as these certified trainers will be able to provide ongoing training to practitioners who have not had these trainings. Contact National DEC staff to schedule a Train-the-Trainer training in your community at [email protected].

Institutionalize and Share DEC Promising Practices

As the collaborative DEC Approach is implemented at the local level, you may initiate and implement new and creative ways for drug endangered children to be identified and protected, ways for collaboration to be more effective, or ways to enhance other aspects of the DEC mission. These maybe labeled as “promising practices,” and it is important to identify promising practices so that you can share these with other professionals and other disciplines. Identifying and sharing promising DEC practices strengthens DEC efforts locally, and National DEC shares these practices with practitioners across the nation to spread innovative practices for helping drug endangered children. National DEC developed the National DEC Promising Practices Publication to get conversations started. 

Implementing the collaborative DEC approach involves having conversations and meetings with fellow practitioners, developing closer working relationships, sharing information, and considering and adopting changes in procedures and practice—all of which can be reflected in protocols and MOUs. DEC protocols and MOUs have been developed and put in place in various jurisdictions across the country:

• Protocols are commonly described as a set of common guidelines that everyone follows, so everyone is on the same page. Protocols define the procedures and steps for professionals to take as they work together to make a difference in the lives of drug endangered children.
• Bylaws establish the rules and guidelines for the purpose and work of the DEC alliance.
• An MOU outlines the agreement between organizations on how they will work together addressing the DEC issue.

These documents help shape and clarify the actions and direction of the DEC alliance by formalizing agreements and helping to institutionalize DEC efforts across all disciplines involved. Example documents along with many other beneficial tools and resources are made available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected].

Engage political leaders and obtain policy support

The DEC Approach addresses a significant number of key public policy issues that are of interest to elected and senior appointed officials including child maltreatment, child placements, drug activity, substance abuse, human trafficking, community-oriented policing, incarceration rates, drug courts, and educational outcomes. These issues will need political support as well as possible tribal resolutions and legislation or statute changes It is important to continue to think about how to engage political leaders within your community, tribe, or state as well as at the federal level. Getting support from political leaders will assist in moving DEC efforts forward and may even result in policy or law changes that strengthen the DEC mission.

Example Resolution and Legislation:

• Indian Country DEC Resolution – sample​
• Indian Country DEC Resolution – example (ITCN – Nevada)
• Nevada Statute​
• Oklahoma Legislation

Conduct Regular Meetings to Formalize the DEC Alliance

It is important to have local DEC alliance meetings on a regular basis. This schedule will assist in building relationships and partnerships, allow for case reviews, allow for training and education opportunities, and assist in sustaining DEC efforts. We recommend having the meetings on the same date and time every month so people can put it on their calendars. For many alliances, having meetings at least every other month works best as it keeps people thinking about DEC and also keeps efforts moving forward. Example documents along with many other beneficial tools and resources are made available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected].

Assess and Enhance Overall DEC Efforts

The DEC Approach is designed to create ongoing collaboration and ongoing change because the practitioners who have the responsibility and authority to serve drug endangered children and families will always face new challenges, new drug trends, new policies and laws, and other changing circumstances. In addition, each case that is dealt with in a collaborative manner will have its own lessons about what worked well and what could have been handled better. For these reasons, it is vitally important for DEC alliances to continuously assess what things are working and what things are not working and how DEC efforts can be enhanced in your community. A DEC Alliance Self-Assessment tool is available to participants of the Roadmap and Toolkit Academy. Contact National DEC Staff at [email protected].

Acknowledgments

The National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (National DEC) would like to thank the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in the U.S. Department of Justice for being a key partner. The DEC mission would not have advanced as far without their partnership.

We would also like to thank the Bureau of Justice Assistance for their significant support of our work and assistance with the development of resources.  Support from the Office for Victims of Crime allowed National DEC to create an online resource center with publications, MOU’s, protocols, webinars, and other resources.  We greatly appreciate the support from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).  ONDCP has raised awareness for DEC efforts nationwide.

We are also grateful to National DEC’s network of local, state, and tribal DEC alliances for their ongoing efforts to implement the collaborative DEC approach and to put the protocols, tools, and other resources of our network to daily use on behalf of drug endangered children. We also benefit greatly from the expertise of the experienced practitioners in our national network in helping develop additional resources and promising practices. The work of National DEC and our success in moving the DEC mission forward would not be possible without the persistence and hard work of our national network of practitioners, DEC leaders, and DEC Alliances.

For more information about our partners:

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services: cops.usdoj.gov

Bureau of Justice Assistance: www.bja.ojp.gov

Office of National Drug Control Policy: www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov

Office for Victims of Crime: www.ovc.ojp.gov