Co-Creating Recovery Community: Workforce, Stakeholder Engagement, and Community Readiness

Jessica Cooksey, Lyndsey Hague, Ruben Buck Breaker

Panel 8 – Keynote Panel  –Alberta’s Recovery Communities, what are they?

September 25th Day Three – Exhibition Hall North Building 9:00 am to 10:30 am

Co-Creating Recovery Community: Workforce, Stakeholder Engagement, and Community Readiness

Jessica Cooksey

Session Description

This panel presentation offers a concise overview of the operational readiness process for opening a recovery community. The presenter will discuss how organizational inventories and outcome measures guide implementation across domains such as peer-driven support, resident empowerment, and participatory collaborative culture. The session will highlight the use of implementation frameworks and fidelity assessments to evaluate both organizational and individual progress.

Key steps including readiness assessment, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building—will be outlined, showing how resident representatives and staff co-create a culture of hope, mutual self-help, shared responsibility and accountability. The presentation will also address how continuous quality improvement and structured measurement approaches reinforce recovery community values and sustain long-term recovery outcomes.

Learning Objectives

  • Identify core readiness domains and assessment methods for implementing and evaluating recovery communities.
  • Apply practical steps to foster mutual self-help, shared responsibility, and sustained recovery outcomes.

References

  • Best, D., & Lubman, D. I. (2013). Therapeutic communities for addictions: A review of their effectiveness from a recovery-oriented perspective. Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation, 4, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.2147/SAR.S38844
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2012, May 22). Operationalizing recovery-oriented systems: Expert panel summary report. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/expert-panel-05222012.pdf
  • Leamy, M., Bird, V., Le Boutillier, C., Williams, J., & Slade, M. (2011). Conceptual framework for personal recovery in mental health: Systematic review and narrative synthesis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 199(6), 445–452. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.110.083733
  • Vandewalle, J., Debyser, B., Beeckman, D., Vandecasteele, T., Van Hecke, A., & Verhaeghe, S. (2021). Implementation of peer support in mental health services: A systematic review. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 18(1), 54–64. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33793284/
  • Glasgow, R. E., Vogt, T. M., & Boles, S. M. (1999). Evaluating the public health impact of health promotion interventions: The RE-AIM framework. American Journal of Public Health, 89(9), 1322–1327. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.89.9.1322
  • Bowen, E., Irish, A., Wilding, G., LaBarre, C., Capozziello, N., Nochajski, T., Granfield, R., & Kaskutas, L. A. (2023). Development and psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Inventory of Recovery Capital (MIRC). Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 250, 109875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2023.109875

Other Panel Members

Join us for the Alberta Recovery Summit, hosted by the 9th Annual Recovery Capital Conference taking place on September 23rd, 24th, and 25th, 2025.

 Session Streams

  • Health Care and Recovery
  • Indigenous Health
  • Occupational Health and Safety

 Key Details

  • DAY ONE September 23rd – 5:30 pm 6:30: Early Badge Pick Up and Networking Reception, 6:30 pm to 8 pm Pre Conference Presentation
  • DAY TWO September 24th – 8:45 am to 5 pm : Keynote Speakers and Breakout Sessions
  • DAY THREE September 25th – 9 am to 5 pm: Keynote Speakers and Breakout Sessions

 Hotels

Book your hotel at one of our host hotels and save money. Click on the links for the discount rates and book early as rates will go up, and they always sell out.

Schedule

Speakers

Registration

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