By Greg Grisolano, for the ATTC Network
Welcome to your new ATTC Messenger! We’ve got some exciting changes in store this year, which we hope you’ll enjoy.
We also have a very special announcement: The ATTC Network will be celebrating 30 years of continuous service. Thanks to funding from SAMHSA, we’ve been able to:
Based on the success of the initial five-year grant cycle in the next round of funding saw the establishment of our National Coordinating Office. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, we provide infrastructure to support communication and collaboration between our 10 regional and two population-focused ATTCs.
Using our Technology Transfer Model, for most of the ATTC Network’s existence, we’ve been focused on dissemination – providing numerous trainings to large numbers of participants. Since 2017, our focus has shifted towards Intensive TA to organizations, localities, and systems.
What has this change meant from a practical sense? Fewer standalone training events, and more emphasis on connected learning series, and communities, organizational development and systems change projects, and more TA to organizations, localities, and states.
We’ve learned a lot over the last 30 years, made some incredible memories, and have done our best to share what we’ve learned with others. And we want to invite you to help us celebrate our “Pearl” anniversary, the traditional gift given to commemorate such a special occasion.
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing lots of stories, memories, and other things we’ve learned during the journey. Continue visiting our blog to read about the highlights from each of the regional and population-focused ATTCs. We’ll be posting other memories and pearls of wisdom on our social media channels (if you’re on social media too, give us a follow!). And we’re looking forward to bringing you some special video highlights and interviews with some of the friends and colleagues we’ve made along the way.
You can help us by sharing that content, of course, but we’d also love to have you be part of the conversation. If you’ve got a story, a memory, or a photo from your time in the ATTC Network, please consider sharing it with us. You can email Greg Grisolano here. We’d love to compile these stories and share them, to help showcase the impact of three decades in the field of substance use treatment and recovery services.
Pearls are often used to symbolize the wisdom gained through experience, and they can’t exist without a little bit of grit! It’s also an apt metaphor for the ATTC Network’s mission as well. To impart the wisdom of evidence-informed practices to others working in the field of addictions treatment and recovery services.
Our vision remains “to unify science, education and service to transform lives through evidence-based and promising treatment and recovery practices in a recovery-oriented system of care.”