Charles LaCour, CAPP

Mr. LaCour is the Director and cofounder of the NET Training Institute, Inc., (NTI) a school for life long learning in Orlando, Florida. Founded in 1996, as a nonprofit corporation with 501c3 tax status, the Institute has trained over eighteen hundred students and provides faith based professional level training in addiction, prevention, counseling, ministry and recovery support services. The Institute, which is licensed by the Florida Department of Education, offers live instruction, distance education and contracts with organizations desiring to improve support services in their own communities.

Background: Mr. LaCour has extensive experience in business, real estate and community service, including being past president of both the Daytona Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and the Daytona Beach Hotel/Motel Association. He is a graduate of Leadership Daytona and the prestigious Leadership Florida program sponsored by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

NET Institute: At NTI his commitment includes oversight of all administrative functions including technical assistance deliverables under a SAMHSA federal contract. He instituted the "First Monday" Meeting of the NET Leadership Institute in Central Florida as a venue to connect individuals in faith based organizations and clinical agencies. For ten years he has co hosted the annual NET Recovery Care Conference which began in 1983, to Nurture, Equip and Train dozens of faith based recovery support ministries. He developed the "Cluster Study Program" for use by ministries and organizations needing affordable training for volunteer and staff development.

NET students look to Mr. LaCour for mentoring in achieving their educational goals including the certification portfolio process. He has developed a successful internship program placing faith based students for supervision in clinical treatment facilities in Central Florida.

Mr. LaCour was instrumental in the Institute becoming a training provider for several IC&RC boards including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and World Federation of Therapeutic Communities; and California's CAADAC, nationally for NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals plus serving Florida licensed social workers, mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists.

Statewide: Mr. LaCour served the Southern Coast Addiction Technology Transfer Center (SCATTC) as a member of the workgroup bridging the gap between faith based and clinical based organizations. The briefing paper resulting from this collaborative effort is one of the nation's first to provide practical tools for effective partnerships for closing the treatment gap and helping to define faith based substance abuse recovery support services. He is a Certified Addiction Professional (CAP) and served on the statewide advisory board for Florida's Access To Recovery.

In Central Florida Mr. LaCour has successfully assisted a range of social service organizations to increase their impact and capacity. In Central Florida he has consulted for the Wayne Densch Foundation in their transitional housing programs and for Recovery House, a 12 step recovery residential program. A breakthrough achievement occurred in 2003 when he facilitated Teen Challenge of Central Florida (140 beds for men) in their successful quest for program licensure through the FL Department of Children and Families. He has also served as Treatment Director for Life and Work Soulutions, a licensed treatment and counseling agency.

Mr. LaCour is available for program consulting and staff development to raise the standard of care provided by grassroots faith and community programs offering Recovery Support Services.