This summer ACE has been busy meeting the established objectives, goals and tactics of its 2007 programmatic strategic plan. In the plan ACE seeks to first establish a strong informational foundation as the base of the program while simultaneously conducting a full program assessment to highlight project success and preferable avenues of growth. Together, these two arms will allow the program to have a stronger impact of increasing the number of parents and caregivers who discuss inhalant abuse with their children.

As part of the solid program foundation, a comprehensive resource databse is being developed. The project is nearly complete and will launch in early 2008 with an expanded and significantly upgraded website. Other recent program successes and highlights follow below.

Website:
The program’s website www.inhalant.org continues to be a popular resource for consumers seeking preventative information about inhalant abuse. Traffic to the website is sharply on the rise and by this fall, the number of visitors to the site this year will have already surpassed the complete number of visits to the site for all of 2006.

The site is continuously updated with new content and the latest inhalant related articles from across the country. A new discussion board was recently added to the site also continues to be a success with quite a few interesting posts from parents, teens, and concerned friends. Please click here to view the discussion board: (link)

Additionally, last month the United States Department of Health & Human Services agreed to allow ACE to post the number for their national drug treatment referral hotline on ACE’s inhalant.org website.

State Initiatives:
Illinois:
To complement the strong Illinois program that was launched this past May, ACE is conducting a parental awareness survey in Chicago once schools are back in session this fall.

The survey will be conducted with assistance from the Illinois State Board of Education and the local Superintendent of Schools.

Additional copies of ACE’s Inhalant Abuse Prevention Kits and educational materials will be further distributed into even more schools with assistance from key partners such as Prevention First, the Illinois Poison Control Center, and the Illinois School Counselor and School Nurses Associations. Next summer, parents will again be surveyed to determine the program’s success in getting more parents to discuss inhalant abuse with their children.

Feedback from the program has already been positive.  For one perspective of the initiative, please click on the following link: (link)

Virginia:
Last spring the Virginia Department of Health issued a grant to elementary and middle schools. The recipients received funding to train parents on the issue of inhalant abuse, using ACE’s kit. The preliminary results from the survey show that ACE’s Kit is clearly effective in educating parents about the issue of inhalant abuse.

There were initial low levels of awareness of the issue and the dangers of its abuse. However, after being trained with ACE’s Kit, over 90% of the parents felt more prepared to talk to their kids about the issue and over 97% planned to discuss it with their children. Compound these numbers with the data showing when a parent talks to their child about inhalants, tendency to use an inhalant decreases by half and it is clear even more Kits are needed in even more communities. Please contact ACE for a copy of the Kit or download a copy electronically from ACE’s website at www.Inhalant.org.

Increased Visibility:
New Ad:
Thanks to an alliance with Partnership for a Drug-Free America, ACE was able to reach a greater audience through the placement of an ad in a major national publication. Scientific American Mind magazine, in its June/July issue, ran a full full-page, color copy of the ad "Inhalants Can Kill."

Conferences:
This summer ACE has also been working at expanding the program’s reach through booths or presentations at national and regional conferences. ACE hosted a widely visited booth at the American School Counselor Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado. Many counselors had heard about ACE’s Kit but were pleased to stop by the booth, pick up additional materials, and share their individual experiences in working with children who had abused inhalants.

ACE also took part in the Virginia School Safety Conference which was sponsored by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice and Virginia Department of Education.  The conference was intended to provide information on the most current school safety concerns to school and law enforcement officials.  ACE introduced Jeff Williams, the keynote speaker and a police officer from Ohio who lost his 14-year old son to inhalant abuse. 

Jeff is traveling around the country speaking to a wide variety of community groups in an effort to prevent inhalants from tragically affecting any more families or communities. As he notes, “nothing I can do can bring my son back, but what I can do is help other families avoid suffering the same pain that we endured.” ACE continues to support Jeff in his efforts to reach families in every state with his heartbreaking message. 

ACE was also one of the featured organizations to have a booth at the conference.  In addition to positive feedback from conference attendees on ACE’s efforts to raise awareness about inhalant abuse, there was a lot of interest around getting more copies of the ACE educational materials into more communities throughout the region. 

This fall ACE is also scheduled to present its program at the “Aerosols 2007” conference in Manchester England. The panel presentation is intended to bring a wider global cooperative effort in developing sound practices for discouraging inhalant abuse.

Projects:
This summer ACE also sat on the advisory panel tasked with reviewing the newly revised curriculum for the Virginia Inhalant Abuse Resource Guide.  We are pleased to see Virginia take such an active role in the proactive campaign against inhalant abuse.