NEW YORK STATE RECOVERY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

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NEW YORK STATE RECOVERY COMMUNITY
ORGANIZATIONYesterday, Today, Tomorrow

• Presented by
• Betty Currier, CASAC, CPP
• Consultant, Council on Addictions of NYS
• Board Member Northeast Regional Rep.
• Faces Voices of Recovery
• Friends of Recovery NY Steering Committee

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NY RECOVERY MOVEMENT Beginnings through the 90s

• Mutual support groups
• Network of community-based councils
• Affiliates of National Council on Alcoholism and
  Drug Dependence (NCADD)
• Information and referral
• Varying advocacy efforts
• Treatment-based alumni associations

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BEGINNINGS OF ADVOCACY 2000 -2006

• 2000 Long Island Recovery Advocates (LIRA)
  formed
• 2000 Friends of Recovery of Delaware and
  Otsego Counties formed
• 2004 Friends and Voices of Recovery
  Westchester formed
• Provided first recovery advocacy trainings
• Leaders in civic engagement campaigns
• 2001 St. Paul Summit launches Faces Voices of
  Recovery

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NY RECOVERY MOVEMENT 2000 -2006

• NYS OASAS has a Recovery Bureau under Division of
  Treatment and Prevention
• 2001 Federal governments Center for Substance
  Abuse Treatment Recovery Community Services
  Program begins funding grantees in New York
  state.
• Council on Addictions of NYS (CANYS) 2001
• SpeakOUT LGBT Voices of Recovery 2001
• Group Ministries, Inc. Buffalo 2003
• AIDS Service Center of Lower Manhattan 2003
• Syracuse Recovery Project 2003, 2006
• Peer to Peer, New York City 2004
• National Alliance of Methadone Advocates 2006

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Council on Addictions of NYSRCSP Activities

• Several small upstate recovery advocacy groups,
  supported by councils, are formed
• Struggles, in rural areas particularly, with
  anonymity issues, insufficient funds
• Grant ended in 2003 when RCSPs focus shifted
  from advocacy to peer service delivery, because
  local programs were not structured for peer-based
  services at that time
• A few groups, connected with CANYS organizations
  and Faces Voices of Recovery, continued efforts
  to be a voice for recovery

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NY RECOVERY MOVEMENT 2006

• Faces Voices of Recovery
• Positive influence
• Resources and leadership spur activity
• Existing recovery support organizations continue
• Varied structures
• Little connection/communication
• Friends of Recovery of Delaware and Otsego
  Counties begins development of The Turning Point
  Recovery Center

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NYS OASAS Paradigm Shift 2007 - 2008

• NYS OASAS establishes Recovery Bureau under new
• Division of Prevention and Recovery
• Prevention, Treatment, Recovery
• Equal Integrated - Indispensable
• September 2007 Recovery Forums
• Speakers from the recovery community include
• Phillip Valentine, CT
• Mark Ames, VT
• Mark Helijas, VT
• Betty Currier, NY
• January 2008 Recovery Services Implementation
  Team forms
• April 2008 OASAS hosts recovery community focus
  groups across the state

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RECOVERY COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

• Recovery community represented on Recovery
  Services Implementation Team committees
• Integrating Prevention and Recovery
• Planning for Recovery Conference
• Data Collection Recovery Centers
• Non-partisan Civic Engagement
• Recovery Community Centers

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NY RECOVERY COMMUNITY ORGANIZES STATEWIDE

• Guiding Principles/Beliefs
• A statewide recovery community organization must
  be a key participating partner
• A statewide recovery community organization must
  be a separate but equal entity that can represent
  the views of the recovery community in planning
  and implementations
• Our voice is a critical component in all
  discussions
• All pathways to recovery must be embraced and
  included
• Issues of stigma/discrimination related to
  specific recovery issues must be addressed

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STEPS TAKEN TO DATE

• A steering committee was formed and met on April
  4, 2008 to form Friends of Recovery New York
• 25 people representing
• Many pathways of recovery
• Ethnicities
• Areas of the state
• Age and gender
• Commissioner Carpenter-Palumbo informed of our
  activities and plans

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DRAFT MISSION AND VISION

• WHO
• Friends of Recovery - NY is comprised of NYS
  residents who are in long-term recovery from
  addiction, their families, friends and allies. We
  represent all sectors of the community, all
  regions of the state, and the numerous and
  diverse paths to recovery. We actively organize
  and mobilize the recovery community so as to
  speak effectively with one voice.

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DRAFT MISSION AND VISION

• WHAT
• Our mission is to demonstrate the power and
  proof of recovery from addictions and its value
  to individuals, families and communities
  throughout NYS and the nation. We actively seek
  to advance public policies and practices that
  promote and support recovery.

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DRAFT MISSION AND VISION

• WHY
• We envision a world in which recovery from
  addiction is both a commonplace and a celebrated
  reality, a world in which the entire spectrum of
  effective prevention, treatment and recovery
  support services are available and accessible to
  all who might benefit from them.

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AGREED UPON ACTION STEPS

• Three committees formed
• Organizational Structure committee to begin
  incorporation process and draft proposal for
  operational structure
• Education committee to draft a proposal for
  marketing FOR-NY
• Advocacy committee to draft a proposal of how
  to advance public policies that will support
  recovery and eliminate discrimination

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CURRENT ACTIONS

• Friends of Recovery NY incorporated
• Sub-groups meeting via conference call
• Plans being made for follow-up face-to-face
  meeting
• GOAL Launch statewide organization in September
  2008

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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

• OASAS releases RFI for developing recovery
  community centers
• OASAS meeting with key people from NYS recovery
  movement to discuss plans for creating recovery
  community centers
• FOR-NY as possible home for recovery community
  center initiative

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IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS

• Setting up committee on recovery community
  centers
• Developing a proposal for selecting, funding,
  developing and supporting recovery community
  centers across NYS that would have FOR-NY as the
  fiscal agent
• Publicizing the OASAS RFI regarding recovery
  center development

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SO, HERE WE ARE

• The largest addictions services delivery system
  in the US New York state - embraced a
  recovery-oriented system of care.
• The recovery community in NYS is organizing and
  establishing itself as the advocate and voice for
  individuals with addictions and their families
• Recovery-oriented systems of care linking the
  service system with the recovery community
  linking the people being served with the systems
  that can serve each individual most effectively
• Coming together to support long-term recovery
  from addictions