History

NCADD is the leading advocacy organization in the world addressing alcoholism and drug dependence.  Since its founding in 1949, NCADD of the Central Mississippi Area, Inc. has raised public awareness about addiction throughout Mississippi and increasingly across the southern states.

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Marty Mann, one of the first women to achieve sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous, organized the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA) in 1944, which later became the National Council on Alcoholism (NCA), and then the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) to address the concern with other drugs.  Mississippi volunteers sought out the recovery community organization by becoming affiliates.

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Marty made two important policy decisions when she started NCADD:

• For NCADD to be a credible agent for changing people’s attitudes and understanding of alcoholism, it would need the involvement and support of the medical-scientific community; and

• Changing people’s attitudes and understanding meant changing people’s behavior, so NCADD must offer professionally trained counseling services at the local level where people live and need help.

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Today, NCADD of the Central MS Area continues to operate on two parallel tracks – the national and community levels. NCADD continues to offer critical recovery support services and provides a powerful network of support for those suffering from alcoholism and addiction — friends and family members alike.