Get Involved With Your Local RCA Alumni Association
Your path to recovery doesn’t stop when you leave Recovery Centers of America, it is only the beginning. Recovery from a substance use disorder is ongoing and finding a support system is critical.
One of the best ways you can sustain and support long-term recovery is to become involved in the RCA Alumni Association. From alumni recovery meetings and chapter planning meetings, to speaking with current patients and attending Alumni Association events, there are many opportunities to help others who want to maintain long-term recovery.
Supporting others in recovery is also a great way to promote your own recovery efforts. Assisting others keeps you grounded and creates opportunities to reconnect with like-minded individuals and groups.
Stay Committed & Connected
The time our patients spend with us in our residential drug and alcohol rehab programs at RCA is only the beginning of a lifelong recovery journey. Staying connected with recovery and others who have shared similar experiences in life and at RCA can increase your chances of successful sobriety.
Recovery Support—Everywhere You Go
The science of addiction tells us just how important it is for individuals in recovery to have access to their support network when they’re feeling overwhelmed or tempted to use. The Alumni Association provides an opportunity for you to meet new people, try new things, and see new places with your support network.
As a part of our mission, the Alumni Association provides alumni, families, and friends the opportunity to exchange people, places, and things that fed their addiction with new people, places, and things that won’t trigger relapse and will sustain long-term recovery. This will be done through social, cultural, educational, and spiritual events.
After evidence-based treatment, Recovery Support Services are vital to long term recovery. An essential benefit of treatment is matching the patient up with a strong regional alumni network to bond with after “graduating” from inpatient and outpatient care”
Alumni Chapter Locations
Don’t see a chapter in your community? Start one!
Continuous Support
Our Alumni Program offers many services to help keep our patients on the right path after a drug and alcohol rehab program.
- Ongoing Education
- Continuous Support
- Opportunities to help others in recovery
Give Back
Staying connected and involved in alumni activities offers powerful opportunities to help others in recovery, where you can share your experiences with those who may be in the early stages of their journey. Join others whose lives have been transformed by our treatment programs.
Seven examples of easy and fulfilling ways to give back to the recovery community:
- Share your journey with current patients. Encourage them to work hard and be involved in the Alumni Association by signing up for speaking commitments.
- Help plan chapter events, activities and meetings.
- Volunteer to chair support and recovery groups and meetings.
- Be a greeter and/or help with set-up, decorating, and cleanup for alumni association events.
- Share creative event ideas with your facility-centered chapter planning committees, events that would be fun and supportive of people in recovery, events that allow everyone to meet new people, try new things and see new places.
- Hand out flyers about upcoming Alumni Association events and meetings at local AA/NA meetings.
- Promote Alumni Association events at local recovery homes.
FAQs
A: Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” explains that one of our most basic needs as human beings is to feel a sense of belonging. Creating a strong bond with others can increase happiness and overall satisfaction with life and helps manage stress. Whether you have 10 days or 10 years in recovery, making and maintaining connections with likeminded individuals will help you find fulfillment in your new, sober life. Remember, active addiction is isolating, but recovery doesn’t have to be!
A: In order to foster the strong relationships built in treatment and celebrate the unique culture present at each site, our Alumni Association chapters follow a facility-centered model, meaning that after discharge, you will become an alumnus of the site you visited. If you visited more than one site, we welcome you to choose the chapter of the site nearest you, or the site in which you have the strongest connection to.
A: Because each chapter is run by our alumni, there are plenty of opportunities to get in service. Whether you wish to chair a meeting, commit to a speaking engagement, mentor newly discharged alumni, or plan one of our exciting events, volunteering your time can strengthen your own individual recovery. Each chapter of the Alumni Association organizes a planning committee to discuss plans for upcoming events and meetings. Events can range anywhere from museum tours and paint nights to kayaking and bowling.
A: Whether you spent 1 day or 30 days with us, when you leave RCA, you are automatically considered alumnus. We also recognize that the relationships you have with family and friends can become strained during active addiction, and that rebuilding these relationships in recovery is key for long term success. Studies show that social support from family and friends has been consistently found to predict positive outcomes, which is why our Alumni Association encourages loved ones to also take part.
A: Before leaving RCA, if you chose to receive Alumni Association information, you will automatically be sent information about all alumni happenings, either by email or text. You can also check our alumni webpage to see what’s happening and register for events.
A: If you’re struggling, PLEASE reach out! You can call our Alumni Office at (484) 654-9981 , or touch base with your Alumni Coordinator. We are here to support you in any way we can as you learn how to live your new life in recovery.
To Stay Involved
Help Others
You have “been there.” You make that first connection easier. To help you with this process, our Admissions staff is readily available to talk to you, your friend or your loved one seeking treatment.
Refer a friend or family member. Call 877-520-9659 today.
Keep Connected
We hope all RCA Alumni will continue to foster friendships and continue drug addiction recovery. We encourage you to connect through social media, network with other alumni, help others in need of recovery and stay connected to catch up, network or help you achieve your goals.
Keep Involved
There’s a wide spectrum of possibilities regardless of location and with varying levels of commitment. From volunteering to attending a regional chapter event to sharing your experiences with current patients, there are plenty of ways to show your RCA pride and be an active member in our drug addiction recovery alumni community.
Or update your Contact Information by sending an email to alumni@recoverycoa.com.
Find the schedule and register for an upcoming Alumni Association event here.
