Social Marketing | Policy Primers

With a visual storytelling philosophy, Voices of Hope Productions produced and designed several policy primers for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-New Jersey. Often policy primers are intensive text and chart-only documents. By integrating policy directives, statistics, charts, photography and compelling “true stories” of individuals affected by the disease of addiction, a comprehensive view of the issues were distributed to a wide audience with multi-levels of information and visual interest. Each policy primer maintained a consistent and branded look.

Policy Primer | Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap | Download Primer
The Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap primer outlines New Jersey’s treatment shortfall and the $3 billion in savings New Jersey would see if it met the treatment needs of residents. The number of state residents demanding treatment but not able to access it exceeds 50,000, 9,400 of whom are adolescents. The need for treatment in New Jersey is far larger: there are 805,000 residents who have a drug or alcohol problem and need treatment, with only 7 percent of those being admitted. The Treatment Gap primer contains stories of families who have been directly affected by the state’s inadequate treatment capacity.

One of the anecdotes recounts the death by overdose of Christian Foster, who had been on a waiting list for treatment. Since his death, his mother, Kass Foster, has worked with an addiction support group Parent-to-Parent assisting families who have an addicted son or daughter and are trying to get them into treatment. Mrs. Foster stated that “Addiction is the only disease that you have to wait in line for a bed. It’s an epidemic.”

Policy Primers | Addiction Treatment Instead of Incarceration | Download Primer
As part of the “Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap-NJ Initiative”, The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-New Jersey, released  numerous policy primers over a period of a few years. The “Treatment Instead of Incarceration” primer examines the enormous costs to the state – both financial and human – that result from imprisonment of non-violent offenders and illustrates that supervised treatment for these offenders is the more appropriate course. The primer outlines how a shift away from drug war policies such as mandatory sentencing and toward programs such as drug courts benefit both the addicted individual and society.

The “Know Your Rights” policy primer provides information for individuals in addiction recovery and is focused on
gaining fair access to jobs, housing and health services.

Posted on Friday, January 21st, 2011 at 9:32 am. Filed under: Social Issue Campaigns Tags: activism, addiction, addiction recovery, advocacy, alcoholism, citizenship, criminal justice system, drugs, incarceration, legislation, NCADD-NJ, Nonprofits, public policy, social justice, treatment gap, true stories