About The Florida School of Addictions Studies
The Spirit Continues at the Florida School of Addictions Studies! Click the below links to learn more about the non-profit school providing cutting edge substance abuse training to professionals in the addictions field.
What Puts The FSAS In a League of Its Own
The Founding and Youth of the FSAS.
The FSAS Grows into the University Center at UNF.
The Present and Future of the FSAS
What Puts The FSAS In a League of Its Own
The Spirit!
The Florida School of Addictions Studies (FSAS) is not a conference. The FSAS is a professional school specializing in addictions and related problems.
If you work or volunteer in the addictions field and care about making a difference in the lives of your clients and their families, the FSAS is the professional school for you.
The FSAS is based upon an applied curriculum featuring dynamic keynote presentations, mini-conferences, and four-day intensive clinical skills training courses.
You can earn needed CEU's and PDH's while learning how to integrate theory and practice into a personalized set of skills that you can use immediately. You will become part of a learning community that generates a powerful spirit of professional growth and personal self-renewal. You will become part of a dedicated group of individuals who are literally transforming individuals, families and communities. By participating in the FSAS, you'll be able to develop a professional network of friends and colleagues who support each other in their ongoing career and personal development.
The FSAS teachest cost effective strategies for training your staff in science-based and recovery-centered principles of treatment. By attending our trainings, you can position yourself and your agency for success in the emerging world of addiction treatment.
The FSAS provides personal and professional growth seamlessly integrated into a powerful and practical learning experience, allowing students to become leaders in community-based treatment and recovery.
The Founding and Youth of the FSAS
Only a few will know about or remember the Florida School of Alcohol Studies that existed for a number of years during the 1960's. It was an important training component for the addictions field those success brought about what we know today as the Florida School of Addictions Studies. The former school of the 1960's was well attended and played a necessary role in substance abuse training. However, with cutbacks in state funding in 1974, the scholl was unable to continue unil 1981.
In the fall of 1981, with concepts of the former school in mind, an energetic group consisting of Chuck Rabaut, Barbara Lauer, George Clarke, Buck Walker, Diana DiVitto, and Clarence Kemp, to name a few, came together to brainstorm and work out the possibility of reviving the school with a concept of being "self-funding".
This group of volunteers worked endlessly to creat the Florida School of Addictions Studies. Barbara Lauer, the current Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Bureau Chief for Driver Education and DUI Programs, remembers working 60 plus hours per week on the early creation and development of this school. Other's like Chuck Rabaut and Bill Blount, labored tirelessly to secure funding from sources such as the Florida Supreme Court and the former HRS.
The school was formally created in 1981, and originally chartered on February 22, 1982. The Florida School of Substance Abuse Studies was incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation with a 15 member volunteer Board of Directors. The first school was held at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida in August of 1982. In 1988, the school was renamed the Florida School of Addictions Studies, which is more reflective of the addictive disorders which it addresses. Soon thereafter, the Board of Directors was expanded to 18 members.
The FSAS Grows Into The University Center at UNF
Having outgrown the facilities at Rollins College, a statewide search was conducted in 1988, which resulted in the school's relocation to the University of Tampa.
In 1994, it became apparent that the need for larger classrooms and more modern facilities could not be met by the University of Tampa. In August of 1995, the FSAS was moved to its current home at the University of North Florida's University Center.
In 2012, the FSAS will return to Tampa, Florida where Springfield College, School of Human Services will host the Annual School.
The Present and Future of The FSAS
In recent years, the FSAS has continued offering the Annual School comprised of over 20 diverse courses of varying lengths while expanding the school's reach by providing Regional Training Opportunities in the Tampa Bay region as well as the West Palm Beach and South Florida areas.
The Spirit of the FSAS continues throughout the year, not just during the July Annual School. The comradery can be felt at each of the Regional Schools as well as the Annual School and even online on the FSAS Facebook Page as students discuss their experiences at the FSAS.
Continuing to expand to meet the needs of it's students by providing trainins more frequently and throughout the state, the FSAS hopes to expand into the North-West Panhandle of Florida and to other regions where training is needed.
