Learning Resource Center

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Your one-stop, no-cost library for building stronger recovery housing and support programs — courses, guides, webinars, podcasts, NAADAC CE opportunities, research, and more.

Whether you’re opening your first recovery home, leading an established program, working as a peer or recovery support provider, or a community partner, there’s something here for you.

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Latest Highlights

Podcast

Episode 4: Systems, Data, and the Social-Experiential Model

WebinarNAADAC CE

PAX Tools for New Beginnings to Inspire a Stronger Tomorrow

R.H. Guide/Handbook & Templates

How to Raise Funds

Learning Center Support

NAADAC CE

Course/Training

Peer Leadership Best Practices

So You Want to Become a Peer Leader in a Recovery Residence? Recovery residence house managers and others wishing to become “peer leaders” (PL) will be able to listen to interviews of six successful PLs and hear how they approached the role, the challenges they faced, and what their experiences have taught them. Anyone interested in learning more about this process of becoming a PL and their vital role in recovery residence operations will enjoy this program. At the conclusion of this program, participants will understand the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to function in the role, as well as the challenges and opportunities involved. Recovery Residences - How We Know They Work Many in the recovery field feel intuitively that recovery residences, structured sober living, and similar programs aid a person’s recovery from Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Unfortunately, there has been scant research to measure outcomes and explore the questions around recovery residences: What evidence do we have that supports our ideas that recovery housing helps recovery? What types of programs have the most success? The least? What does the data tell us that may help develop evidence-based programs? Dr. Corey Vilsaint, a community research psychologist fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and a principal investigator at the Recovery Research Institute and Center for Addiction Medicine, answers these questions and more in this course.

NAADAC CE

Webinar

From Withdrawal to Regulation: The Brain's Timeline for Early Recovery

Amy Jeppesen explores the neurobiology of recovery, reframing challenging early-recovery behaviors as neurobiological responses rather than character failures - the four brain systems impacted by addiction, the four phases of recovery from acute withdrawal through early stabilization, dopamine and cortisol dynamics, and practical recovery housing strategies built on structure, co-regulation, and scaffolding support.

Learning Brief

Managing Food Costs

Practical strategies for controlling food costs, which after personnel and utilities can be a recovery home's largest operating expense. Addresses rising grocery prices and vendor delivery fees, the staffing constraints that make cost control difficult, and why good nutrition directly supports residents' physical recovery.

R.H. Guide/Handbook & Templates

Recovery House Checklists

Prepare a recovery residence for opening with practical checklists covering the essential elements of a safe, functional, and welcoming home. This guide addresses recovery house structure and operations, furnishings, emergency equipment, technology, and consumable supplies to help operators assess needs, plan purchases, develop budgets, and create a recovery-oriented living environment.

Course/Training

Preventing Medication Assisted Recovery (MAR) Related Discrimination

This training will provide information on Discrimination Policies for Recovery Housing operators. After completion, the participant will have the knowledge to confidently operate a non-discriminatory recovery house.

NAADAC CE

Webinar

Criminal Justice Deflection Considerations

Deflection experts Guy Farina, Jac Charlier, and Sydney Goggins, all of whom work for the non-profit organization Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC), explain how deflection works and why it matters, particularly in rural communities.

Learning Brief

Conduct a Needs Assessment

A methodology and resource list for assessing what your rural community actually needs before you develop recovery housing. Covers zoning, service availability, employment opportunities, local sources of support, and public attitudes including NIMBYism and stigma — with attention to running an assessment when resources are limited.

R.H. Guide/Handbook & Templates

How to Raise Funds

Learn how to develop an effective fundraising plan for a recovery house based on your organization’s needs, resources, and capacity. This guide covers setting fundraising goals, evaluating your donor base, selecting and budgeting for fundraising activities, engaging supporters, and building lasting donor relationships, with examples and resources to help put your plan into action.

NAADAC CE

Course/Training

Urine Analysis (UA) Best Practices

Recovery homes may use urine analysis for their residents centered on supporting each person's recovery journey. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), urine testing is the best developed and most commonly used monitoring technique in recovery programs. Understanding Urine Analysis - Urine analysis is the best-developed and most-used monitoring technique in substance use treatment programs across the continuum of care. When used correctly and competently following best practice guidelines, it can be an effective therapeutic tool. Drug testing uses a biological sample to detect the presence or absence of a specific drug (or drugs) and drug metabolites within a specific window of time. No universal standard exists today in clinical drug testing for addiction identification, diagnosis, treatment, medication monitoring, or recovery. Urine Analysis: From a Resident Perspective - This course will explain urine analysis from the residents perspective. Providing person-first care, dignity, and respect is hugely important to your residents. This course explains how urine analysis can affect the resident.

NAADAC CE

Webinar

Beyond the Grant: Braided Funding for Nonprofit Sustainability

James “Jay” Phillips, CEO of Seed Sower, Inc., explores practical approaches for moving nonprofits beyond grant dependency toward long-term financial sustainability. Using Seed Sower’s recovery ecosystem as a case study, Phillips demonstrates how organizations can combine grants, public reimbursements, billable services, partnerships, and program-generated revenue into a braided funding model that supports mission-critical services. Attendees learn strategies for identifying revenue opportunities, leveraging grants as startup capital rather than operating support, collecting meaningful outcome data, and building resilient, community-focused organizations that can sustain recovery housing, workforce development, transportation, and behavioral health services over time.

Learning Brief

Medication Assisted Recovery

Guidance on implementing medication-assisted recovery in residential settings. Sets out why it matters — fentanyl's role in driving overdose deaths, and the continuing burden on rural communities where rates can match or exceed urban areas — and how recovery residences can support residents using medication.

R.H. Guide/Handbook & Templates

Board of Directors Handbook for Rural Recovery Houses

Complete with templates, this customizable Board of Directors handbook for rural recovery houses — board authority and legal duties, officer roles and terms, governance policies, the Executive Director's role, and ready-to-adapt conflict of interest and confidentiality policies.

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