Early Action, Lasting Impact: Protecting Drug-Endangered Children

– National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children –

At the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (NADEC), we focus on a critical reality: children are often the first to be impacted by substance misuse in the home—and the last to receive help. In the USA today, 1 in 4 children live with a caregiver that meets the criteria for having a substance use disorder. They live in environments shaped by chaos, neglect, and trauma, often overlooked until crisis hits. Our mission is to change that.

NADEC is a national US-based nonprofit that has worked for over 20 years to protect drug-endangered children (DEC). Each year, we support state, local and tribal partnerships, train approximately 6,500 professionals and community members, certify new DEC Trainers, and ultimately impact roughly 30,000 at-risk children.

We equip communities with training, resources, and proven strategies to build safer, more responsive systems around vulnerable children. We work across the country with professionals—law enforcement, child welfare, medical providers, educators—to identify these children earlier, intervene sooner, and connect them to vital support. These actions are how resilience begins.

Resilience isn’t just about one program or service—it’s about consistent, coordinated systems that keep children in focus. That’s why we help build Drug Endangered Children (DEC) Alliances at the local, state, and tribal levels. These alliances bring professionals together to break down silos, share responsibility, and respond collectively to children living in dangerous or high-risk environments.

Through our national network, we provide tools, training, and guidance to these alliances—so they can recognize warning signs, collaborate effectively, and most importantly, make sure children are seen, heard, and helped. We also believe children should be part of the conversation—not afterthoughts in adult-centered systems.

At the heart of our work is our commitment to provide Help, Hope, and Support—to children, families, communities, and the professionals who serve them. We believe resiliency is possible when the right people come together at the right time, for the right reasons. NADEC equips professionals and communities with training, tools, and real-world strategies to identify at-risk children and respond effectively. We help establish and grow DEC Alliances, offer expert guidance on cross-system collaboration, and provide access to practical, nocost resources to support lasting change.

For more information and access to free resources, visit www.nationaldec.org.

Our call to action is simple:
Come together. Form or grow a DEC Alliance. Let’s stop missing the children.

Resilience is built when adults work together to change outcomes for children. Join us in making that the standard—not the exception.