LIVE
·
2022 Grants Challenge

LARC House: Peer Supported Recovery Residence

Recovery is an inside job; LARC provides the outside love. LARC House, a component of LA Recovery Connect, offers small-scale supportive housing embedded with health, wellness, and education for those seeking long-term addiction recovery. We are a peer-to-peer recovery community organization (RCO) in South LA that welcomes all pathways to recovery. We build community, leverage experience, and walk beside those in recovery as we work to grow our supportive recovery housing and work toward creating recovery coach job opportunities in the future.

Donate

What is the primary issue area that your application will impact?

Housing and Homelessness

In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?

South LA

In what stage of innovation is this project, program, or initiative?

Applying a proven model or solution to a new issue or sector (e.g., using a job recruiting software or strategy to match clients to supportive housing sites, applying demonstrated strategies from advocating for college affordability to advocating for housing affordability and homelessness, etc.)

What is your understanding of the issue that you are seeking to address?

The problem is twofold: the LA County Department of Public Health acknowledges that social isolation and stressors related to the pandemic have resulted in increased relapses and overdoses among those in recovery or struggling with addiction; and, despite best efforts, getting people with substance use disorder from treatment to safe affordable housing remains one of the biggest obstacles to long-term recovery. The situation in Los Angeles is particularly dire. We’ve attempted to get people into sober livings to no avail; no beds are available, or the cost is too high. For many women struggling with substance use disorder in South Los Angeles, poverty, lack of education/employment, generational trauma, and the high cost of housing hinder positive life changes. Providing a recovery residence with full-service Recovery Community programs free of charge, will remove the barriers that have kept women in South LA from receiving desperately needed peer-to-peer recovery services.

Describe the project, program, or initiative this grant will support to address the issue.

In his landmark report “Facing Addiction in America,” Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy made it clear that recovery communities and peer support are an effective way to help sustain long-term recovery and fight the addiction epidemic. LARC leads with connection. Peer support is the cornerstone of all LA Recovery Connect programs, including LARC House, allowing for trust to build and healing to begin. Modeled after leading Recovery Community Organizations across the country, LA Recovery Connect intends to be the first full-service RCO in Los Angeles. LARC currently offers All Recovery Meetings, Open Spaces Hikes, and connection to external recovery resources. LARC House will offer one-year terms of a safe space to live and recovery support services to two Los Angeles based women in recovery. Residents will receive routine guidance and structure, access to health, wellness, and education along with the benefits of LARC’s already initiated programming/resources. Recovery coaching will be available, and residents will create and maintain their own individual led recovery plan. Connection and transportation to outside resources is a key element to success for people in recovery and will be provided. As LARC’s community and standing grows, former residents will have the support of the LARC Community to help sustain their recovery. In turn, they can serve new residents/community members. We are replacing a cycle of addiction with a cycle of connection and support.

Describe how Los Angeles County will be different if your work is successful.

All great programs start somewhere. LARC House will make an immediate difference in Los Angeles by housing 2 women seeking recovery and providing an essential continuum of care. Our recovery residence in South LA, a historically underserved area, serves people exiting treatment or prison, populations at greater risk for homelessness. Coupled with LARC programming and individual led recovery planning, the LARC House will make long-term recovery for the residents more sustainable. We have based our model on leading peer-to-peer Recovery Community Organizations such as Real-Life, The McShin Foundation and CCAR, recognized organizations that have shown the peer-to-peer model works. Over time, as we acquire more housing, our community, practices, and systems will grow and expand with us. We will add more beds/housing and train interested alumni as recovery coaches, creating job opportunities for Angelenos in long-term recovery. As we grow, so will our impact on Los Angeles as a whole.

What evidence do you have that this project, program, or initiative is or will be successful, and how will you define and measure success?

Consistent with existing RCO & Recovery Residences programs we measure success by focusing on 5 key outcomes: decrease substance use, improve outlook on life, restore family connections, progress in work/school, improve social connections. Qualitative structured interviews will be used quarterly to assess progress with respect to the 5 key outcomes. This formative information helps understand successes, challenges, and to customize recovery services. Quantitative Single subject designs are specifically intended to evaluate the progress of a single or a few participants. A survey covering the 5 key outcomes will be administered upon intake and bi-weekly to participants. We will also conduct yearly follow-up surveys of all LARC House alumni. Success is measured by the 5 key outcomes and whether they have improved. In single subject designs this is often measured by achieving stability above/below baseline. We expect these trends to remain consistent post LARC House program participation.

Approximately how many people will be impacted by this project, program, or initiative?

Direct Impact: 2

Indirect Impact: 200