The Council was formed by interested volunteers in 1964.  They shared common personal and professional concerns about alcoholism.  They sought ideas and projects to educate for prevention and advocate for treatment.  By 1970, the agency incorporated as a nonprofit and hired staff to fulfill this function.  Volunteers still offer community input.

The agency pioneered free-standing inpatient alcoholism treatment in the mid 1970's.  In the 1980's, it advanced substance abuse prevention from slogans to outcome driven programming.  Dynamic approaches to impaired driving such as the ACCESS driver intervention program were introduced.  Programming was introduced into the industry to intervene and prevent loss of employee productivity caused by substance abuse.  These remain to this date.

The Council has a rich tradition of innovative substance abuse and violence prevention programming.  Currently, the agency is the region-wide leader in school and community based high risk behavior prevention programming; conflict mediation applications; court referred diversion programming; tobacco cessation and prevention; and other creative character building modules aimed at bolstering the skills of youth.

The Council views the twenty first century as a time of challenge and opportunity...The challenge of evolving society and the opportunity for innovative programming acutely focused on addressing needs.