Since 1999, Community Drug Action Teams (CDATs) across NSW have been building safe, healthy and resilient communities through preventing, responding and reducing health, social and economic harms related to drug and alcohol use.

How we help

Raising awareness

Greater community awareness of the harm caused by alcohol and other drugs can prevent uptake, delay first use and reduce harmful levels of use.

Removing risk factors

Stemming the proliferation of alcohol supply and limiting the availability of other drugs in the community reduces the risk of harms, particulary in vulnerable populations.

Increasing protective factors

Increasing social engagement, family connectedness and access to healthy activities will help reduce the demand for alcohol and other drugs in the community.

Get Involved

“That’s the thing with CDATs, you can talk about small ideas and have a go at working out a solution. These small projects don’t involve much money, but they can change a person’s life. You can’t always know in advance what the exact benefits will be, it’s a ripple effect. But you can be sure if there are no ripples, nothing’s changing.”
Pauline Gallagher, Canterbury CDAT
“Working on a project to address drug and alcohol issues can highlight the problems in communities, but at the same time also highlights the agencies trying to address them. By working together collaboratively, changes to complacency in communities about this problem can be altered.”
Ros Laws, Moree CDAT
“The individuals I have talked to over the years of my involvement with the CDAT have all said that they learned new things out of all the activities the Liverpool CDAT presented, and I know I have learned new things myself or I had old knowledge reinforced and brought to the surface again”.
Nora Gomez, Liverpool CDAT