Hoping to reshape the national debate about addiction issues, the Alliance Project is reaching out to grassroots advocacy groups for people in recovery and offering a number of tools to groups that speak out against stigma and discrimination, according to project director Jeff Blodgett.Backed by 50 addiction field groups, including Join Together, the Alliance Project sees its mission as a facilitator and coordinator for recovery organizations, says Blodgett. "We don't want to be seen as competitors, but as a resource to focus the debate and strategy on a national level about alcohol and other drug abuse," he noted. "The Alliance Project really has to do with nurturing a recovery voice and providing aid and assistance for those efforts."
Founded in early 1999, the Alliance Project plans to launch a national campaign later this year aimed at raising awareness about addiction. Part of the campaign will involve producing and distributing communication materials and organizing tools -- a number of which are already available through the group's web site -- to a growing community of local advocacy organizations. For example, the Alliance Project has produced a fact sheet, press kit and full-color brochure on the costs of untreated addiction, and is currently compiling a directory of grassroots groups that advocate on behalf of people in recovery.
Blodgett says the Alliance Project can even offer information for recovery groups that want to host house parties to recruit new members -- one way the project is fulfilling its mission of building capacity among advocacy groups. The Alliance Project also is conducting focus groups with people in recovery and their families to find out what would make them get involved in such efforts.
Grantmaking by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), through the Recovery Community Support Program, has provided a much-needed boost to development of advocacy groups, says Blodgett. But while many are eager to engage in the public policy debate around such issues as treatment parity, groups often are uncertain about how to convince lawmakers and the public about the need for addiction services. One of the Alliance Project's first major initiatives has been to use public-opinion and market research methods to help local groups tailor their messages effectively.
Blodgett, who used many of these same tools while coordinating political campaigns for Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), a well-known supporter of addiction issues, says that focus groups are being used to "test various messages about why we need to better address the disease of addiction." The Alliance Project is hoping to determine, for example, whether it is best to zero-in on the disease concept of addiction, the public costs of untreated addiction, stories about recovery, or take another approach. "There are a number of ways we can come at this, but we're unsure about what's most effective," Blodgett noted.
Backed by the information gleaned from the focus groups, the Alliance Project hopes to launch a four-year national advocacy campaign this fall that delivers a tightly focused message while being flexible enough to allow participating groups to chart their own paths to reach the campaign's goals. Blodgett says that with the CSAT funding, an ever-growing research base and a renewed sense of purpose in the field, now is the ideal time for recovery groups to take their advocacy efforts to the next level.
Market research is expensive, and the Alliance Project -- which has received initial funding from the Johnson Institute Foundation -- is seeking additional grant support to support its work. "We have the money to lay the groundwork, but not to conduct the campaign yet," Blodgett noted. For economy's sake, he says, the group will initially focus on tailoring messages to the interests of community leaders and state and federal policymakers, not the general public. He notes that groups like the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids have been very successful in using market research, public-relations firms and consultants to finely hone their message and achieve major policy changes.
Results of the Alliance Project's market research will be distributed via reports, press releases and the group's web site.
The Alliance Project, 1954 University Avenue West, Suite 12, St. Paul, MN 55104; 651-645-1618; fax 651-645-1576; e-mail: info@defeataddiction.com .
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