Our Story

Power of Putnam is the Community Anti-drug Coalition for Putnam County. We were organized in 2003. Our mission is to reduce substance abuse with special emphasis on youth. This is accomplished through the deployment of evidence based prevention strategies designed to bring about positive change in our community and region. Our active membership of around 40 represents all sectors of the community. One important role of the coalition is to constantly monitor ever changing trends in drug abuse and to keep the community aware of the challenges and involved in the solutions. The most devastating current trend is the misuse of prescribed controlled substances. This has led to previously unheard of rates of addiction, drug overdose deaths and hospitalizations, drug exposed babies, drug related crime, economic loss, and a weakened workforce. We are data driven and the data clearly shows that our state and more particularly our region are particularly hard hit by this problem. The good news is that our community is rallying in amazing ways to reduce the problem on many fronts and we are seeing results. We actively engage our youth through a “Thrive Ambassador” youth coalition. We look forward to sharing the details of our work.