Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) and peers have developed creative approaches to peer recovery support services (PRSS) delivery in response to COVID by hybridizing or offering PRSS in virtual or remote contexts. PRSS are being developed with a desire to be more inclusive and meet diverse needs related to gender, ethnicity, and rural equity, among others. We encourage presenters to think outside the traditional PRSS delivery box and consider topics around progressive development and delivery of PRSS. 

To ensure recovery is accessible and equitable, our actions and advocacy must have an impactful voice to effect long-term change. Participation from all levels of the community, including people who use drugs, people in recovery, and those who support them is essential to lowering barriers to recovery support and creating inclusive spaces and programs. For this focus area, presenters may cover topics related to state or federal policy and advocacy, community outreach and civic engagement, advocacy efforts that are inclusive and just, and skills-building for successful advocacy.  

The recovery movement is in a time of growth, innovation, and change. However, recent research notes continued stigma surrounding substance use disorders, persistent racial & socioeconomic inequities within recovery spaces and funding opportunities, and disparate outcomes among rates of recovery for polysubstance use. This focus area will highlight ways to grow, transform, and inspire new systems. Presenters are encouraged to address innovative program ideas and expanding viewpoints that are forward-thinking and challenge us to be more inclusive and to grow as a movement. 

Organizational capacity building and development are important to the legacy and longevity of an organization. Healthy organizations offer healing and build bridges for all people and communities. Presenters are encouraged to submit creative ideas to address internal organizational capacity-building topics such as leadership & board development, organizational policies and procedures, supporting effective partnerships, utilizing participatory processes for change, peer workforce development, data collection and reporting, and systems improvement.  

Everything happens within a cultural context, including recovery. Honoring the beliefs, customs, language, and norms of people in recovery helps to enhance their experience and call for availability and accessibility to a wide array of services and programs so people can achieve wellness utilizing their own pathway of recovery. Recovery emerges from communities and each community has unique strengths and challenges shaped by its cultural history and values. We celebrate the resiliency, multiple pathways of recovery, and the stories that impassion us. For this focus area presenters are encouraged to facilitate dialogue and present information on where the crossroads of recovery intersect with the many layers of community and human experiences with language barriers, housing, self-identities, and documentation status, to name a few.  

The recovery movement, born out of a need for advocacy for equitable rights and access to services free of stigma or shame, has grown into a social justice outcry for more inclusion of people who have been and, in some cases, continue to be unseen and unheard in recovery spaces. Having inclusive systems of care and communities free of racism with services to meet diverse needs, and where all people can thrive and reach their own full potential, is necessary to diminish disparities in recovery spaces among the services offered, the peer workforce, and Recovery Community Organization (RCO) leadership. Some examples of topics in this focus area include diversity, outreach to communities that distrust systems, and social justice solutions for discrimination and prejudices in recovery spaces.