and drug abuse, according to the promotional stickers that have been distributed of late by the addiction-fighting Council Partners.

And so, it seems, does the five-organisation umbrella group itself -- at least in the area of fundraising, which has taken up a considerable share of the Council Partners' energies in the past 12 months.

Tomorrow afternoon, in fact, the Partners will announce at a specially organised luncheon that they have exceeded the $5-million donation target which they set for themselves when they kicked off their first-ever fundraising campaign over a year ago.

"It (the campaign) has been an exciting effort for us,'' campaign treasurer Mrs. Pauline Richards, speaking to Community with fellow campaign officials Mr. Gordon Johnson, Mrs. Kathy Watson and Mrs. Susan Butterfield, said in a recent interview.

Added the chairwoman of the Parent Resource Institute for Drug Education, one of the five Council Partners: "The momentum of the campaign has just focused a lot of attention on PRIDE and on its activities. It has also enabled us to get on with the programmes at hand and not worry so much about raising funds.

During the course of the Partners' one-year campaign, the organisation -- which includes PRIDE, Fair Havens, the Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Focus and Lions Quest -- has to a large extent revolutionised the way in which charities both operate and raise their funds in Bermuda, sharing resources of all kinds to an unprecedented degree and treating the donor community, whose capacity for giving has been greatly reduced by necessity of late, like "clients'' who want a need met (in this case the knowledge that their donations are being well-applied and actually contributing to a solution).

"People have been extremely generous,'' said Mr. Johnson, the Council Partners' executive director, "because they have been able to see some of our solutions. In the past, charities have tended to focus too much on the problems and not enough on the solutions. People who are giving want to know that their money is making a difference. They want to see a significant change in strategy.'' While the Council Partners, however, have been successful in convincing donors of their shift in overall strategy, the hard part, in many ways, is really just beginning.

For one thing, the problem of substance abuse, as a statement by Focus in the Council Partners' recent campaign update pointed out, "seems to be on the increase in Bermuda, with many more young people getting caught up in this disease.'' For another, the public's expectations with regard to the Council Partners will also have increased significantly these days, largely because the organisation, which operates in unofficial tandem with the National Drug Commission, now has a sizable amount of money at its disposal.

"While we'd like to say,'' Mr. Johnson told Community, "that it's really been a thrill to get to this stage, we now have to ask: `What are the things we need to make this a better community...to help people lead healthier lives?'' Mrs. Watson, the chairwoman of the recent campaign, added: "This is just the tip of the iceberg. Although we have gained the trust of a lot of people, we are still growing.'' In spite of the many challenges that the Partners currently face, however, there is every indication -- at least from the confidence with the which the CP officials stated their aims recently -- that a more cohesive and therefore effective system for treating the Island's addicts is taking shape.

The organisation, for example, has already earmarked all of the $5 million that it has raised over the past year for both the streamlining of its services and the development of new initiatives.

Among these new initiatives are the development at Fair Havens of a new family support and mentor programme, the assembly by the Alcohol and Drug Council of a professional resource data base and a continuation by PRIDE of the drug awareness training that it provided to 24 Appleby, Spurling and Kempe employees in September.

In terms of the services that the five Partners already provide, moreover, Lions Quest's life skills programme for youngsters has been introduced to students in all 18 of the Island's Government primary schools and three special schools, while Focus, which operates both a telephone hotline and a relapse prevention programme, has helped over 100 people directly this year and more than 400 over the telephone.

"This is significant,'' Mr. Johnson said of such contacts, "because each of them represents a relationship that has been built and earned.'' "Community involvement,'' added Mrs. Butterfield, "is a primary goal of ours. This campaign has focused on the substantial donors, but we'd like to get every person in the community to be a part of our efforts -- and not just in terms of money.'' Ultimately, of course, it all comes down to everyone -- public or private, officially or unofficially -- working toward a common goal.

"There's really a movement afoot,'' said Mr. Johnson, "to synchronise the treatment on the Island. The Council Partners, in many aspects of our operation, are a reflection of that movement, and the campaign has put us in a strong state of preparedness. As it now stands, we are hoping that this funding will allow us to demonstrate some results.'' PROUD PARTNERS -- The Council Partners, an umbrella organisation of five addiction-fighting charities, successfully raised more than $5 million in operating funds recently. Pictured (from left to right) are the "partners'' that led the fundraising team: campaign chairwoman Mrs. Kathy Watson, vice-chairwoman Mrs. Susan Butterfield, treasurer Mrs. Pauline Richards and Council Partners executive director Mr. Gordon Johnson.