Toolkit
Building resources in your community.
Sharing Knowledge
Building a thriving recovery community is key to supporting individuals on their journey to a better life, but it is no easy task!
We have collected resources in this toolkit that will help communities build local networks and awareness while utilizing the templates, guidance, and experience of others.
You don't have to start from scratch. Here are resources to assist.
Recovery Toolkits
Advocacy Toolkit
Document detailing the importance of advocacy in regards to changing local and state legislation and stigmas surrounding substance use. Gives definitions of substance use, what advocacy is, and how to best enact these skills and knowledge within one’s own community. Gives a resource list and is interactive.
Resource from: A Partnership to End Addiction (34 pages).
Faces and Voices of Recovery Advocacy Toolkit
Designed to help advocates for peer recovery build a relationship with whomever they are working with. Includes tips for building relationships, a short questionnaire section, and ‘Do’s and Don’ts’.
Resource from: Faces & Voices of Recovery (8 pages).
ER OD Survival Guide
A tool for guiding someone through the process of saving an individual who is overdosing.
Resource from: Friends of Recovery New York (1 page).
2018 Recovery Voices Count Toolkit
A document outlining and giving advice on how to be an active non-partisan participant in recovery support engagement. Explains what civic engagement is, outlines state voter deadlines and registration and how best to be active within your community.
Resource from: Faces & Voices of Recovery (39 pages).
Pep-19 (Tips for Teens)
Visualization document explaining to young adults the risks of opioid use and how it affects your mental and physical health. Includes information about the law and how to recognize opioid use in others.
Resource from: SAMHSA (2 pages)
Family to Family Resources Guide
An extensive document for families of people beginning, currently in, or have been in recovery. Includes resources for recovery organizations and groups, sections where information on how to deal personally with substance use of a family member is located, how to support oneself and the one in recovery, and how to navigate through those times.
Resource from: Friends of Recovery New York (87 pages).
What can we do to help build a community for young adults in college or university?"
Resources for Collegiate Recovery Programs
Building Collegiate Recovery Capacity
38 Assets for Building Collegiate Recovery Capacity, breaks down 9 critical aspects to a collegiate recovery capacity, 20 assets that work to serve the students directly, and 9 assets that aid in the sustainability of such a community.
Includes a list of colleges and universities with recovery communities within their campus, when it started, roughly how many people they served, and number of staff.
Resource from: Transforming Youth Recovery (6 pages).
Achieving Systems Based Sustained Recovery: A Comprehensive Model for Collegiate Recovery Communities
Created by Texas Tech, a leading collegiate recovery organization, this document outlines the necessary aspects to have in order for a collegiate recovery community to thrive.
Discusses purpose, some existing programs, and evidence-based success models with visuals.
Resource from: Journal of Groups in Addiction & Recovery (19 pages).
2017 Census and Definitions for Recovery Support in Higher Education
Document outlining capacity building to best support the growth and development of a thriving collegiate recovery community.
Includes insights into the importance and how to find resources near you, as well as how to best build relationships with local people to help support the growth of the community.
Resource from: Transforming Youth Recovery (22 pages).
Recovery Assessment Guides
10 Reasons to Fund Peer Recovery Support Services
A visual document explaining with 10 main points why funding peer support in recovery is important.
Resource from: Faces and Voices of Recovery (1 page).
2012 Recovery Capital Scale Psychometrics
Document assessing recovery capital - its strengths and weaknesses, and the ‘psychometrics’ of measuring such variables.
Resource from: Drug & Alcohol Review (1 page).
Language and Education
Treatment for Youth and Young Adults with Mood Disorders
PDF Guide to how to identify substance use within young adults and teens and how to best address and go about treatment. Details common reasons for why substance use arises and how this is linked to trauma. Discusses researched methods for helping young people recover from substance use.
Resource from: SAMHSA (59 pages).
Addiction Epidemiology, Language, and Stigma
PowerPoint slide PDF explaining the psychology behind substance use, the language of addiction, and the stigma associated with addiction.
Resource from: Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Academy (31 pages).
Addiction Recovery Peer Service Roles Recovery Management in Health Reform
Dissects peer recovery in great detail: what it is, who does it, who does it help. Includes organizations committed to training peer recovery coaches.
Resource from: Faces & Voices of Recovery (25 pages).
2020 Review of Scientific Studies on Narcotics Anonymous
Document analyzing the effectiveness of AA and NA, and all additional forms of peer recovery programs that have been documented over the last 85 years. Includes visualizations such as charts and graphs.
Resource from: “We Do Recover” (56 pages).
Pep-18 (Parent Focused National Media Campaign)
Short document talking about a campaign launched by parents to help identify alcoholism and substance use in their children - discusses the resources they built and plan on building to help support parents dealing with these issues.
Resource from: SAMHSA (2 pages).
Words Matter
Document discussing the importance of using the correct language when dealing with substance use and those within the substance use community. Discusses stigma and how to be aware of your own stigma and the stigma of those around you and how to best actively combat these behaviors.
Resource from: National Institute of Drug Abuse (2 pages).
Legislation & Recovery Strategy
A document discussing definitions and examples of advocacy. Learn what kinds of actions are a part of advocacy work and how you can take steps as an individual or an organization to involve advocacy.
Resource from: Alliance For Justice (2 pages)
Iowa Alliance of Coalitions for Change (AC4C)
A place to find community programs and groups working to prevent substance use and abuse in Iowa. Find workshops, campaigns, and teams covering a wide variety of substance use prevention strategies.
National Harm Reduction Coalition
Learn more about practices to protect people who use drugs by using least harmful practices and to raise awareness of the importance of access to syringes, Narcan, and other methods. Find ways to get involved and work towards harm reduction in your community.
National Alliance for Recovery Residences
Learn more about housing rights and access to housing for people in recovery. Find information about conferences and workshops, services provided, and the presence of recovery residences in Iowa.