Navigating the health care system can be complex and confusing, but for those experiencing substance use disorder (SUD), these challenges can become significant barriers to care. Behavioral health services and addiction treatment options are often delivered by programs that are organizationally, geographically, culturally, and financially disconnected from the general healthcare delivery system. As a result, four out of five people who need substance use treatment do not receive it.

To eliminate barriers and to ensure that people receive the type of care and support they need, it is critical that we work to expand and bolster the addiction treatment workforce. Recovery coaches, who bring lived experience with substance use and recovery, can help people navigate these systems and ensure they have access to care options that best meet their needs.

In 2024, RIZE awarded seven one-year Building the Field grants totaling $69,447 to the following organizations:

Center for Health Impact will utilize this funding to offer a 6-session harm reduction and cultural humility recovery coach training series. The series will focus on advanced topics to enhance practice, advocacy, and leadership skills. Each course, accommodating up to 30 students, will offer continuing education units (CEUs) for Certified Addictions Recovery Coaches (CARC). The courses include Understanding Urban Trauma, Providing Gender-Affirming Support, Mental Health, Fighting Stigma, Supervised Consumption Sites, Leading with Humility, and Creating Comfortable Conversations about Harm Reduction.

Eliot Community Human Services will utilize this funding to support the participation of its lived experience staff in two multi-day trainings focused on non-clinical, recovery-oriented approaches. The first session, “When Conversation Turns to Suicide,” and the second, “Coachervision,” will cover effective supervision models and leadership skills. These trainings aim to enhance suicide prevention skills, leadership strategies, and career growth, ultimately boosting confidence and job satisfaction for over 50 recovery coaches.

Malden Overcoming Addiction, Inc. will utilize this funding to offer training to over 50 recovery coaches for CEUs, featuring two tracks for attendees. Track 1 focuses on professional growth for recovery coaches, providing skills for supervisory roles and mentoring others, with topics like Emotional Intelligence and Creating a Workplace Culture of Wellness. Track 2 offers cross-training on substance use and mental health recovery, covering medications, co-occurring conditions, and effective goal setting.

Montachusett Recovery Foundation will utilize this funding to support the training of three recovery coaches with supervisory potential and lived experience in recovery with co-occurring disorders. Trainees will receive 77 hours of training for Massachusetts certification as a Certified Peer Specialist, 18 hours as a Peer Trauma Guide, and additional CEUs in Mental Health First Aid, trauma-informed care, and supervisory skills. They will also receive hands-on supervisory experience, ongoing mentoring, and job placement assistance, with stipends provided to cover potential lost working hours.

North Suffolk Community Services will utilize this funding to host a four-day Recovery Coach Academy, for approximately 20 recovery coaches. The training will offer essential skills training for recovery coaches at no cost, with a focus on individuals who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (D/HH) and those fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). The additional training and support for this workforce is vital, as bilingual, bicultural and/or staff with disabilities often struggle to meet state licensing requirements.

The Sankofa Institute will utilize this funding to strengthen the recovery workforce by training culturally responsive, trauma-informed recovery coaches who are equipped to address the unique needs of communities of color and other underrepresented groups. The program integrates recovery and wellness principles covering topics like community-centered recovery, transformational coaching frameworks, and trauma-informed practices.

Steppingstone, Inc. will utilize this funding to provide the CCAR Recovery Coach Professional Facilitator (RCP-F) Training to its three peer program supervisors, who are certified recovery coaches. This course will equip them with skills to support and teach others in recovery, covering the full CCAR curriculum. Once trained, these supervisors will conduct two, in-person, CCAR trainings annually in Greater Fall River and New Bedford, MA.

In 2023, RIZE awarded four one-year Building the Field grants of $10,000 each to the following organizations:

Center for Health Impact is utilizing this funding to support recovery coaches with specialized training in Mental Health First Aid and Motivational Interviewing for Co-occurring Disorders (COD). These trainings are designed to enhance non-clinical recovery coach practice and the recovery coach role in the inter-disciplinary team by strengthening the understanding and confidence to support engagement and integrated symptom management for people with COD.

Malden Overcoming Addiction, Inc. is utilizing this funding to offer training opportunities for recovery coaches to advance into supervisory roles and cross-train in substance use and mental health recovery. Malden Overcoming Addiction implemented a salary structure to compensate recovery coaches appropriately, based on their level of training, as they transition into supervisory roles.

North Suffolk Community Services is utilizing this funding to host a four-day Advanced Recovery Coach Training that will allow coaches to expand upon the key characteristics of a recovery coach thus preparing coaches to take the next step in their career and help advance the peer workforce. Funding also supports training on a peer recovery support platform that will provide coaches with additional marketable skills needed to step into supervisory roles.

Western Massachusetts Training Consortium is utilizing this funding to support four recovery coaches in completing requirements to achieve their Certified Addictions Recovery Coach (CARC) certification from the state of Massachusetts while they also receive additional trainings necessary to upskill into supervisory roles: Coaching Mental Wellness and Applied Coaching and Supervision. Throughout the trainings, the coaches are offered intensive support and supervision to prepare them for supervisory roles upon completion of the required trainings. This training will help meet a critical need for recovery coach supervisors in rural areas, and thus increase the capacity to train additional certified recovery coaches.

In 2022, RIZE awarded one-time grants for training opportunities that provide recovery coaches with concrete tools and strategies to become effective recovery coach supervisors and to improve their ability to support people with co-occurring disorders. RIZE awarded grants within the following tracks: Upskilling into supervisory roles and Improving support for people with co-occurring disorder:

Choice Recovery Coaching utilized this funding to support the expansion of the peer recovery coach workforce within Massachusetts. The funding specifically supported the facilitation of “Coaching Recovery and Mental Wellness” to train recovery coaches in supporting individuals with co-occurring disorders like SUD and mental illness.

Torchlight Recovery utilized this funding to develop culturally responsive training programs and emphasize upskilling so recovery coaches can transition into leadership and supervisory roles. Coaches received unconscious bias training, learned strategies to foster inclusion, and used mindful inquiry to reduce bias.