Join Together

Illicit drugs and inappropriate alcohol use are national public health problems that are expressed differently in every community. Therefore, solutions to more effective prevention and treatment must occur through community-based strategies and action. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was looking for a way to attack drug and alcohol problems in communities. There were hundreds of community organizations eager to address the issue, but they were often run by volunteers who had few strategic planning skills, no access to current research, and very limited funds. They were often operating in isolation from similar groups and working in a policy environment that was hostile to effective prevention and treatment. Furthermore, the idea that alcohol and drug dependence was a disease with biologic, psychological, and behavioral components was not well established or accepted. Join Together was launched at the Boston University School of Public Health in 1991 through an initial grant of $5 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with a mission to help leaders in communities address the leadership, strategy, funding, and policy challenges they faced. The group continues to operate as part of the Boston University School of Public Health with funding from Robert Wood Johnson and other foundations, corporations, and government agencies. Today, the program is one of the nation's largest providers of research information, planning assistance, and advocacy support for people who are working to improve strategies that prevent and treat alcohol and drug problems.

Join Together was the first group of its kind to make strategic use of Web technology, and currently, more than a million people consult its main Web site (http://www.jointogether.org) annually. More than 35,000 prevention and treatment professionals subscribe to one or more of its electronic newsletters. Join Together members include community leaders, public officials, doctors, nurses, and other treatment professionals, as well as parole officers, clergy, people from labor unions and employee assistance programs, and parents and families—anyone trying to help someone tackle a problem with addiction.

Although the Internet was only embryonic in the early 1990s, Join Together believed electronic communication could become a vehicle to connect people with others who were working on the same issue, disseminate accurate and timely information, and rally action on alcohol and drug policy issues. Its first program relied on a commercial time sharing system, but plans were developed that enabled the first version of Join Together Online to go live on the Internet within a month of the release of the first public browser in 1995.

One of Join Together's initial challenges was to identify, document, and gain access to the thousands of groups that existed throughout the country. Through lists collected from state agencies and other sources, mail surveys were conducted to gather information about what the groups were doing and what they needed. The answers formed the basis for technical assistance, leadership programs, and Web content development. Join Together continues to set its information and support agenda in response to regular surveys of community-level prevention and treatment leaders, but they are now done online.

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