Youth
24th Annual
MID-YEAR
Training Institute
July 20-24, 2025 | Gaylord Opryland Nashville, TN

Youth Leadership

Youth FAQs

Youth are not leading tomorrow but leading now! There has never been a time like the present for youth to rise to leadership roles in their coalitions and address the pressing issues facing our communities.

Building partnerships with diverse stakeholders at the community level is the foundation of the coalition model. To accomplish true sustainability and long-term impact, it is imperative that we empower youth to be catalysts and sustainers of community change. CADCA’s Youth Leadership Training Courses develop the skills of youth in your community and provides them with necessary tools to help your coalition achieve community-level change. Our training empowers young people ages 13-19 years old to take youth-led civic action in their communities. Coalitions across the country are sending their youth through these exciting courses to help them work together more effectively.

This year, CADCA is offering two separate tracks for youth attending Mid-Year: Key Essentials, and the Empowered Youth: Pathways to Prevention Breakout Track. Both tracks must be attended by youth and their adult coalition advisor to support the learning process.


The Key Essentials Course equips participants with the foundational tools needed to take the first steps in solving their communities’ problems around substance misuse, vaping, underage drinking, prescription drugs, and other social challenges using the Strategic Prevention Framework.

The Empowered Youth: Pathways to Prevention Track is a more advanced offering of workshops for youth who have completed the Key Essentials training. This track provides youth leaders with the opportunity to choose between a variety of prevention and coalition-related skill building workshops. Sessions will be released on the website and training grid soon; keep checking back for more information!
 
BEFORE YOU REGISTER:
  1. There are two separate youth leadership training tracks at Mid-Year. If this is the first time your youth are attending the Mid-Year Training Institute, please register your group for Key Essentials English or Spanish with the number of youth and adult advisors that will be attending.
  2. For youth leaders who have already completed Key Essentials, we recommend they sign up for our new: Empowered Youth: Pathways to Prevention Track.
  3. Session registration for the Empowered Youth: Pathways to Prevention sessions will be first come, first served. Most sessions will be offered multiple times throughout the week, morning, and afternoon, so don’t worry if you don’t get the one you want on the first day, it’ll come back around!
  4. Coalition Adult Advisors are required to participate with youth for all youth leadership trainings. Please confirm adult advisors from your youth coalitions that will participate in all training segments with the youth.
  5. We must have a Parent Consent Form for every youth.

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