COMMISSION WANTS INPUT ON DRUG PROBLEMS

The Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission wants to hear about drug
and alcohol problems in your community, as well as ideas for how to solve them.

To gather this information, SADAC is hosting focus groups this summer in a
dozen locations throughout Spartanburg County.

The purpose of the project is twofold, said Maria Bates, deputy director of
operations at SADAC: to learn more about local drug and alcohol abuse, and
to increase public awareness of SADAC and the services it offers. Though
SADAC has gathered this information before, it has never done so on such a
large scale.

"This is a chance for us to look at what's going on in this county and how
we can improve quality of life in this community," Bates said.

"It's really a first for us, and we're really excited about it."

SADAC has hired the Columbia-based consulting firm Social Work Solutions to
facilitate each group and prepare reports on the results. At the end of the
summer, SADAC will analyze this data and use it to identify substance abuse
trends, problems and areas of need that SADAC may not currently be addressing.

Each session will focus on seven specific questions about the extent of the
community's drug and alcohol problems, who is affected and what can be done
about it.

Sessions should last 45-60 minutes. Children ages 10 and older are
encouraged to attend, Bates said, since the statewide average for first
drug use is 11 years old.

The program is being funded with a $9,454 grant from the Mary Black Foundation.

In all, the Mary Black Foundation awarded $275,518 in grants to 33 local
groups through its Organizational Capacity Building grant program. The
program is intended to help recipients carry out their intended missions.

SADAC's idea for community forums made its grant application strong, said
Mary Black Foundation President Philip Belcher.

"SADAC was able to get at that (self-improvement) in a way that also
included community input, and that was attractive to us," Belcher said.

The first focus group was Tuesday in Cowpens. Other sessions are:

- --Thursday at 7 p.m. at Woodruff Community Center

- --Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Boiling Springs Public Library

- --June 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Chesnee Public Library

- --July 9 at 6:30 p.m. at Landrum Public Library

- --July 11 at 7 p.m. at Middle Tyger Community Center

- --July 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Pacolet Public Library

- --July 18 at 7 p.m. at C.C. Woodson Recreation Center

- --July 23 at 7 p.m. at Woodland Heights Recreation Center

- --July 25 at 7 p.m. at the Spartanburg County Public Library's
Hoechst-Celanese Room

- --July 30 at 6:30 p.m. at Inman Public Library

- --Aug. 1, to be announced

For more details, call SADAC at 582-7588.