Dear Readers,

Welcome to the first edition of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children’s (NADEC) newsletter. We are a Resource Center funded by the Office for Victims of Crime and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.  Our goal is to work with the State DEC Alliances and to provide training and technical assistance to those in the field and in the community who assist and care for drug endangered children. 

Who is a drug endangered child? Means a child endangered by caregivers who use, sell or manufacture drugs and by doing so physically and emotionally harm a child.

How can we help the drug endangered child?  First, we can all help break the cycle of abuse and neglect, and it begins with identification. Recognizing children as victims gives us all an opportunity to provide intervention.

Questions? You can contact NADEC at www.nationaldec.org. And, in the very near future, you can visit our updated web site. The new site will have a new look and organization to it.  You’ll be able to download materials, have your questions answered by an expert, and chat with other community members and professionals through our web forums. Soon, you’ll get to see these changes for yourselves. By the end of March, we will have a soft launch of the web site. It won’t be available to the public but it will be available to our test users.  Interested in testing out the site for us?  You can by simply contacting Katie Bositis at kbositis@nationaldec.org to get set up.

Who’s Who at NADEC
Lori Moriarty, Executive Director
Susannah Carroll, Resource Center Manager
Julie Ray, Operations Manager
Katie Bositis, IT Administrator

We’re excited to announce our new hire Katie Bositis as our IT Administrator. She will keep the web site updated and can help you find articles and information.

On a sad note, Dr. Brian Mattson has accepted another position at Northpointe Institute for Public Management, Inc. But, we will retain his wisdom and dedication as the chair for the Criminal Justice Work Group. We would like to thank Brian for all the hard work and energy he brought, and continues to bring, to the effort.

Thanks for taking the time to read our newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it and we look forward to sending you more information to you in the future.

Susannah Carroll
Resource Center Manager