Foundation for Recovery, Inc.

Foundation for Recovery mobilizes resources within and outside of the recovery community to assist Nevadans in achieving sustained recovery from SUDs and mental health issues. Peer-based recovery support services, education, and advocacy are the strategies through which the organization’s mission is achieved. Recovery Support Services FFR offers a comprehensive array of evidenced-based peer recovery support services, including one-on-one support, telephone-based support, mutual aid support groups, life skills classes, and sober social activities. The program’s foundation is the value of the lived experience of peers to assist others in achieving and maintaining recovery. Services are designed and delivered by Peer Recovery Support Specialists (PRSS) who are properly trained through a 46-hour curriculum and have two or more years in long-term recovery. Education FFR offers a variety of trainings and the most prominent ones include: 1) Peer Recovery Support Specialist Training (PRSS), a comprehensive, 46-hour training for those with lived experience who want to mentor those seeking long-term recovery from SUD, as well as continuing education classes needed to renew certification after two years, including Advocacy, Ethics and Confidentiality, Mental Health First Aid, Self-Care, and much more. The PRSS Training is the only “in-person” training in Nevada recognized by the Nevada Certification Board (NCB). 2) Recovery Leadership Academy, a series of courses designed to educate, guide, and inspire members of the recovery community to serve in leadership roles. 3) Overdose Prevention Training/Narcan education to the community and family members. Attendees learn how to recognize overdose symptoms and perform rescue breathing and administer Narcan/Naloxone, along with treatment options for opioid users. Life-saving Narcan/Naloxone kits are provided to each participant during training (subject to availability). Advocacy FFR provides the community with practical tools and skills to help them engage in effective stigma reduction efforts and collaborates with state and local policymakers to promote recovery-friendly policies, end discriminatory practices, and eliminate stigma. Each September, FFR holds the Recovery Rally in observance of the National Recovery Month to increase awareness and understanding of mental and substance use disorders and celebrate the people who recover. Other activities include the Recovery Advocacy Day and Recovery Town Halls organized in partnership with Recovery Advocacy Project.

Founded in 2005, FFR is a statewide 501(c) 3 Recovery Community Organization headquartered in Las Vegas (southern Nevada) with a satellite office in Sparks/Reno area (northern Nevada). FFR is Nevada's leading statewide peer-run recovery community organization (RCO) founded and led by people in recovery and family members of people in recovery. It is currently supported by 22 full-time and 2 part-time staff members who are people in recovery and/or family members of people in recovery. Staff members are also certified by the Nevada Certification Board. Since its inception, FFR has been the primary provider of peer-led recovery support, peer recovery support training, advocacy, and sober social activities for substance use and co-occurring disorders. FFR’s offers a peer-run Recovery Community Center in Las Vegas; peer recovery support; mutual aid support groups; life skills classes; High School Equivalency (HSE) tutoring and testing; parenting classes; Mental Health First Aid; Suicide Prevention Trainings; Women’s Empowerment Series, training and education; and hosts the annual events such as the Rally for Recovery and Recovery Awards Dinner. All services are available to the public at no cost. Additionally, FFR is certified by Nevada's Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Agency (SAPTA) to provide 0.5 level early intervention services, which include curriculum-based educational experiences. FFR is a member of Faces & Voices of Recovery’s Association of Recovery Community Organizations (ARCO) and is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Peer Recovery Support Services (CAPRSS).

At the organizational level, FFR routinely collects evaluation data which includes outputs and outcomes. The most common outputs include the number of individuals served, the number of individuals trained, and the number of individuals attending mutual aid support groups, sober social activities, and special events. With regards to outcomes, individuals receiving peer recovery support services are guided to develop his or her individualized Recovery Plan which includes specific Recovery Capital Measures in the SAMHSA's eight domains of wellness. Recovery Plans will be built around each person's Recovery Capital. The initial intake provides a baseline for the current situation and is the starting point of comparison. It also evaluates a person's resources, skills, and strengths as well as barriers that need to be addressed to achieve recovery goals across each of the life's eight dimensions. Subsequent coaching sessions help determine a participant’s change in their attitudes, perceptions, and feelings about themselves and their recovery. Their progress can be documented as reductions in barriers, symptoms, substance use, levels of worry, crisis interventions, etc., and/or as increases in quality of life, coping abilities, medication adherence, social network and support, daily functioning, illness management, self-esteem, rate of employment, having a safe place to live, earnings, etc. Other outcome data is derived from satisfaction surveys. For federally-funded projects, FFR has contracts with external evaluators to conduct evaluations. At the macro-level, the effectiveness of peer-delivered recovery supports was examined by two rigorous systematic reviews and research published between 1995 and 2014. Both concluded that there is a positive impact on participants (Bassuk, Hanson, Greene, Richard & Laudet, 2016; Reif et al, 2014). Taken as a whole, the current body of research suggests that people receiving peer recovery support may experience: increased self-­esteem and confidence, increased sense of control and ability to bring about changes in their lives, raised empowerment scores, an increased sense that treatment is responsive and inclusive of needs, increased sense of hope and inspiration, increased empathy and acceptance, increased engagement in self-care and wellness, and increased social support and social functioning, decreased substance use and depression, reduced hospital admission rates, and longer community tenure. For more information, please refer to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s publications, including "Peer Support" and "Peers Supporting Recovery from Substance Use Disorders."

In 15 years since its inception, FFR has become Nevada’s leading and thriving Recovery Community Organization providing effective services for individuals and families impacted by substance use disorders and/or mental health issues. In 2019, more than 1,000 Nevadans utilized FFR’s direct peer recovery support services and over 29,000 individuals attended support group meetings hosted by The Rooms located in southern Nevada. FFR’s Peer Recovery Support Services Training is recognized by the Nevada Certification Board and it is the only in-person training available in Nevada. With peer recovery support services becoming eligible for billing through Medicaid in Nevada with specific treatment provider types in 2016, FFR continues to meet the growing need for this training across Nevada. More recently, FFR’s two staff members completed an extensive two-day CRAFT Family Support Facilitator Training and were certified as CRAFT Training Facilitators and serve Nevada’s only certified facilitators. Additionally, FFR compiles and publishes the Nevada Resource Directory, the only state resource that focuses on substance abuse and recovery-oriented resources including treatment centers, recovery housing, counselors, social services, support groups, and recovery friendly activities. Thousands of copies of this bilingual publication are distributed annually. Over the years, FFR has significantly expanded its reach to conduct community-wide outreach and provide services where they are needed the most, which include hospital emergency departments, detention centers, jails, behavioral health clinics, and areas frequented by individuals experiencing homelessness. Most recently, FFR has launched a dedicated program to serve the rural and frontier communities in Nevada. FFR’s advocacy efforts celebrated many victories, including the defeat of an assembly bill, AB194, proposed during Nevada’s 79th Legislative Session (2017) that would have created unnecessary barriers for people to receive peer recovery support services; the unanimous passage of the assembly bill, AB367, proposed during Nevada’s 80th Legislative Session (2019) also known as "the anti-stigma bill" which amended language in state law referring to people with SUD using person-centered language rather than “addict” or “alcoholic,” and the passage of SB459 which included the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act known as NRS435C in 2015 which protects people with limited immunity from prosecution when reporting an overdose to the police, 911, poison control center, medical facility; assisting another person in reporting; caring for a person who is overdosing while waiting for medical assistance, or bringing the overdose victim to a medical facility. With the passage of SB459, Nevada now meets all 10 of the Trust of America’s Health indicators. FFR will leverage its statewide presence with two offices in southern and northern Nevada to effectively engage and serve residents in urban and rural areas.