Recovery Communities of North Carolina (RCNC) is proud to announce its selected as an award recipient of a three-year Building Communities of Recovery (BCOR) grant from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) which started in August 2019.  RCNC has partnered with a focused youth serving organization, Reintegration Support Network (RSN) on this state-of-the-art grant. RSN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides youth in Orange and Durham counties with a sense of belonging and the skills and capacities of self-advocacy, healthy relationships, and positive engagement in the community. RSN serves youth ages 14 to 18 who are in recovery from substance use disorder and/or are receiving services for mental health issues and/or court involvement.

RCNC and RSN are collaborating to develop the state's first youth-focused Recovery Community Organization (RCO).

What are the goals of the youth-focused Recovery Community Organization?

• Provide peer-based recovery support services
• Organize recovery-focused policy advocacy activities, and
• Carry out recovery-focused community education and outreach programs

How will RCNC and RSN’s youth-focused RCO provide support?

RCNC-RSN’s youth-focused RCO is designed to provide support through its volunteer Mentor Program, Youth Peer Support Groups, Community-wide Resource Network, and Community Outreach and Education.

What is the Mentor Program?

The RCNC-RSN Mentor Program recruits, screens, trains and provides scholarships to individuals 18 + from the community with lived recovery experience to become North Carolina Certified Peer Support Specialists (CPSSs). In exchange for training and supervision, RCNC-RSN CPSS/mentors provide one-on-one peer support to youth participants, gaining valuable experience serving the unique needs of adolescents. CPSS/mentors also serve as community ambassadors providing outreach and education, thereby creating a local youth-focused Recovery Community Organization (YRCO) Corps.

What are the Youth Peer Support Groups designed to do?

The YPSGs are open to youth at varying stages of recovery. The weekly groups are designed to provide youth experiencing difficulties with truancy, substance misuse, mental health, and/or exposure to the juvenile justice system with an environment of mutual care and ongoing support. The “life skills” curriculum is designed to provide topics for discussion and activities relevant to recovery and overall well-being.

Who will facilitate the YPS Groups?

The YPSG will be co-facilitated by trained RCNC and RSN staff member and an RCNC and RSN peer support specialist.

How does the youth-focused RCO interact with the larger community?

RCNC-RSN is recruiting individual stakeholders onto Community Advisory Boards to ensure that the voices of community youth are heard and embraced by RSN-RCNC. The RCNC -RSN youth-focused RCO also facilitates community-wide support through its Community Partnerships and Community Resource Network made up of other youth-serving organizations. RCNC-RSN also partners with local treatment centers, schools, juvenile court and private counselors.

RCNC is excited about this partnership with RSN and look forward to further serving youth who so deserve to be guided and supported in finding a quality of life in recovery, serving as examples to their peers and living their lives to the fullest every day.