Choice Recovery Coaching, Inc. (CRC), is an independent, 501-C3 NonProfit Organization working in Massachusetts and beyond. CRC, established in 2018, is a MA certified Minority-Owned Small Business with a commitment to diversity and inclusivity. The diverse makeup enhances CRC’s ability to address challenges faced by various communities.

CRC works with the Department of Public Health funded Access to Recovery (ATR) Program, the only provider in Hampden County under this State Program. Here, individuals are supported in building their recovery capital so that they can sustain and grow their recovery. Families are also supported as they reach out to us for education on addiction and recovery. As services were closed due to COVID-19 in March/ April 2020, the organization began providing Telephone Support for individuals and families in different languages. Referrals largely come from word of mouth which brings people who fall “between the cracks” and are not served by the (un)available systems.

Choice Recovery Coaching was the only organization providing Recovery Coach training in the Commonwealth throughout the COVID epidemic. At the time, CRC trained 291 Recovery Coaches, both for individuals looking to enter the field to Organizations adding Recovery Coaches to build their programs. These trainings were done virtually with participants predominantly in Massachusetts and beyond, spanning from Nebraska to Maine to the United Kingdom to Florida. In 2023, Choice Recovery Coaching received a grant from the RiZE Massachachusetts Organization to develop training to support Recovery Coaches who work to support individuals with the duality of substance use and mental health challenges called Coaching Mental Wellness.

As an independent training provider, CRC has authored a catalog of over two dozen trainings, building the Wellness Recovery Workforce across the Commonwealth and beyond. Trainings are grounded in lived experience of chronic conditions, and are adaptable to multiple other types of health challenges. CRC has demonstrated its capacity and ability to deliver high-quality training programs, training to 803 individuals in 2023 across various disciplines, utilizing a blend of 43 online and in-person synchronous trainings.

CRC has been providing Recovery Coach Supervision for organizations who are implementing the Peer Recovery Model into their menu of services. We work directly with coaches to build on and sharpen their skills and become State Certified Recovery Coaches as well as their Program Directors to develop and integrate their recovery support programs into their already established clinical, community, collegiate, justice system, DCF, law enforcement, municipal and other programs. Peer Recovery Workforce Supervision, an 18 CE curriculum developed in 2022 is one of the most comprehensive Peer Supervision curricula available for the Wellness and Recovery Field.

CRC works with communities and systems who want to develop a culture of recovery thus becoming part of a Recovery Oriented System of Care (ROSC). This involves the design and development of Peer Structure and Programming that supports the building of both community and individual Recovery Capital (the assets that one has to obtain, maintain, sustain and grow their recovery). With this, the Recovery phase of the continuum of care (prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery) is supported and grown so that individuals can continue moving FORWARD in building their health and wellness. Recovery Orientation and its Trauma Informed approach is key in fostering the connection of not only the individuals served and their connection to self, but also to the agencies and systems involved as they struggle to make a connection with the individual seeking services for their substance use and mental health challenges.

In 2023, the MA Bureau of Substance Addiction Services named their Recovery Conference “Infinite Pathways of Wellness and Recovery Conference” after Choice Recovery Coaching’s “Infinite Pathways of Recovery” Curricula developed with the Meghann Perry Group two years prior.

Currently, CRC continues training recovery coaches, partnering with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and Advocates for Human Potential, supporting Federally and State Funded Certified Community Health Centers in developing their recovery orientation, and providing recovery coaching at no cost via their Apprenticeship Program and championing recovery for all!