AHW Grant Funded Project 2024-2026

Communities are always co-created. By facilitating a series of convenings that will connect those in the recovery and broader community WASH will create the context and space where participants can co-create a vision and plan for a vibrant recovery-friendly community that will benefit all.

Our project’s approach to addressing the impacts of SUD grows out of and extends what the project team has learned through a previous AHW funded project. The social model of recovery on which the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) is organized (WASH is the Wisconsin state affiliate of NARR) assumes that over time people help each other develop both a range and depth of internal and external resources that sustain their recovery. Collectively these resources are known as “recovery capital”. Our previous AHW project involved working with Recovery Residences to engage in quality improvement processes that we theorized would result in improved recovery capital among residents.

Recovery Residences have an extensive focus on supporting residents in developing internal recovery capital. The realization that developing internal qualities such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, coping skills, and belonging is often still insufficient without external macro-supports of the broader community is at the heart of this new project. Our work with the previous grant confirmed David Best’s assertion that maintaining recovery is influenced by the opportunities provided in the communities where residents live and work. Data from our previous AHW project (Figure 1) shows participating residents’ external, community-based needs can be somewhat alleviated once they are residing in a Recovery Residence, but because many of these issues remain beyond the reach of the residence, some needs remain unmet.

Recovery Residences are acutely aware that they are impacted by the community in which they live and are also awakening to the fact that they can, in turn, positively impact their community. In other words, individual recovery capital (the resources needed to be personally successful) requires the support of community capital (broader systems of resources that promote opportunities for connection engagement that are indicative of healthy communities) for sustained recovery stability and growth.

This project will endeavor to strengthen community recovery capital by facilitating the development of a local recovery ecosystem that provides all the necessary tools, services, and supports that people in recovery need. The whole health approach to substance use prevention and recovery we are using starts with housing (the recovery residence) as its hub and then builds across multiple domains to include: health support, social welfare support, occupational support, and legal and legislative support. We also intend to utilize a Holistic Recovery Ecosystem Model that centers the experience and continued partnership of those with SUD. In addition to identifying community stakeholders, partners and assets, the project team will also proactively identify barriers and inequities in accessing community recovery capital (resources and services)

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Dr. Best suggests that recovery is co-produced by those in recovery and the community, benefitting all. This is a vision of active and inclusive citizenship. Broad community engagement builds a more vibrant recovery community (through activities and conditions conducive to recovery), but the increased civic engagement of those in recovery will also contribute to the collective wellbeing of the overall community. Bringing people together and making recovery more visible will go far to change public perceptions and reduce the stigma of addiction, further enhancing opportunities for those in recovery and for everyone.

Focusing in one local area, the barriers to accessing community recovery capital will be contextual to that community. For this project our pilot work will be in Green Bay. We have already recruited recovery residences that serve under-resourced populations (including Indigenous people, women with children, Veterans, and justice-involved individuals) as partners in building a Recovery Ecosystem. We will then develop a toolkit, based on this pilot project, which will allow other recovery residences in Wisconsin to identify which groups are most impacted by inequitable access and address those barriers through local resources. Our intention is that local areas across the state will be able to utilize the toolkit we develop for their unique context, addressing barriers relevant to their population groups. The toolkit will be a model for developing thriving communities that support recovery from SUD.