Recovery Association Project (RAP), Portland, Oregon

Abstract

The Recovery Association Project (RAP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a vehicle for people in recovery in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area to speak out and challenge the stigma on substance abuse–related issues. RAP's goals are to develop leadership among people in recovery and to support individual recovery through a range of peer-to-peer recovery support services. Core values and principles of RAP include the following beliefs: (1) active citizenship is a stage of recovery—it helps to end the social marginalization that is often involved with a history of addiction; (2) collectively in recovery, we can do together what we could not do alone; and (3) attainment of self-respect, integrity, and development of one's personal gifts is critical to one's recovery. From 2003 to 2007, RAP's Recovery Community Services Program (RCSP)-funded peer recovery services included a recovery center with a drop-in resource center, a wide range of clean-and-sober social and recreational activities, and numerous self-help meetings; a café located in the recovery center that served as a job training program for peers; and leadership training for civic engagement of people in recovery. The feedback RAP gathered from the Government Performance Reporting Act survey of participants during its RCSP grant, and from additional satisfaction questions RAP added to the survey, showed that RAP's services are meeting the needs of participants and helping sustain recovery. At the 6-month follow-up point, more than 85% of participants in RAP services indicated that they had not used alcohol or drugs in the past 30 days.