Vermont Recovery Network ~ Recovery Centers

Public Private Partnerships ~Making a Difference!

The passion and enthusiasm for recovery that helped build Vermont’s recovery centers continues. All of our centers are committed to providing safe and supportive environments for those in and seeking recovery, making special efforts to reach out and engage new visitors considering recovery. Most regular visitors at the nine recovery centers, which make up the Vermont Recovery Network, come to attend the 127 weekly peer to peer recovery meetings held at the centers.

Over the last year the Network has examined the nature of the recovery supports being provided in Vermont’s Recovery centers. This was undertaken as a part of our effort to better serve our visitors, and as a result, we now have more clear information about our visitor’s and more information which documents the effectiveness of the recovery solutions developed with our visitors, many of whom are referred on to additional services. With this newfound clarity we have been expanding training opportunities to better meet the needs of our staff and volunteers. Our goal is to provide even more responsive recovery support services in all of our centers.

Volunteers and staff have been working with guests to develop what we have begun to refer to as recovery solutions. Our workers ask newcomers where they see themselves in their recovery process, encourage them in their efforts and urge them to ask questions. After establishing a rapport, they often make suggestions about other supports or services that might be helpful; creating connections that lead to employment, housing and other social services. This welcoming, engaging support is equally important for our visitors who have longer periods of time in recovery. Our centers don’t provide clinical services but instead harness the power born of personal and passionate enthusiasm for recovery, which has made our readily accessible and welcoming services so attractive.

The Executive Council of the Vermont Recovery Network has reaffirmed the goals expressed in the original request for recovery center funding. It is our hope that the legislature will ultimately fund at least 12 geographically distributed Recovery Centers, serving the population centers of our state. Our growing experience indicates that centers need to be located in towns or regions with sufficient populations of recovering people to provide the volunteer bases necessary for successful operations. When recovery centers were first proposed, the conservative estimate for establishing a center was $70,000. We have still not reached that level of funding. Our experience in operating recovery centers has demonstrated the need for at least two staff positions. A center director needs to provide leadership and work on the public level establishing partnerships with other agencies, while raising money. This person needs to be supported by and supportive of a volunteer/operations coordinator, a person charged with maintaining the daily running of the center, managing the volunteers who have been so instrumental in the recovery center movement’s success. It is evident that the level of public support that has fueled our public/private partnerships has still not risen to a level sufficient to allow Vermont’s centers to develop to their full potential. Even though each of these fledgling nonprofits has been working to raise funds from other sources, none of them have been able to raise sufficient resources to provide for two full time staff positions, rent, utilities, sufficient training, and materials to function at a fully efficient level, yet. As a result, we have not maximized our full potential for providing recovery support services.

During the last year, more than 30,000 volunteer hours were donated to provide recovery support services at recovery centers across Vermont. The average Vermont salary is $17.35. This means that Vermonters donated more than $520,500 worth of time in support of recovery. This figure doesn’t begin to include other donations, grant support, board member support and the time donated by supporters who use our centers and help to make them warm and welcoming places.

We would like to introduce you to visitors who frequent Vermont’s recovery centers. Their stories clearly demonstrate what their lives were like and how they are doing now. Here are their stories: