Today feels like a big moment in the history of ARHE and the field of collegiate recovery. While an annual report may not typically be considered “big news,” this year’s Impact Report includes the publication of two major documents that have been the focus of many hours of work over the last several years.
In late 2022, the ARHE Board of Directors voted to approve ARHE’s Ethical Considerations for collegiate recovery staff as part of our strategic goals. You can find this document within the Impact Report and on ARHE’s website. This document was the culmination of many hours of work by dedicated collegiate recovery professionals. It was later reviewed and vetted by the ARHE Board of Directors and Advisory Council before being approved by a unanimous vote from the Board. This document began as an independent project from folks who are very passionate about our field and the legacy they leave for the future of the field.
I want to especially thank Angie Bryan, Jessica Estok, Joshua Redding, and Lilly Ettinger for years of dedication to this project. I also want to thank Sierra Castedo de Martell for her early work on the project as well.
Another major document included in this year’s Impact Report is a revision of ARHE’s Standards & Recommendations.
In 2020, ARHE released a statement committing to the following:
ARHE will be an active participant in a recovery movement that speaks up, educates, and, most importantly, listens and questions injustice. We must recognize the racism that is deeply embedded in the American soul and continues to embed itself within every area of society: not just with policing and the justice systems, but throughout government, in our institutions, and within our Collegiate Recovery Programs. We must see that racism is inextricably tied to stigma, unprecedented rates of incarceration and overdose, and inequitable access to healthcare that dehumanize people who use substances. We also recognize that the larger recovery community often reinforces and fails to stand against those inequities.
One of the actionable items from this statement included the following:
We will add a standard to our Standards and Recommendations focused on Equity and Justice.
In 2022 we updated our membership that we were in the process of revising the Standards and Recommendations through an equity and justice lens. The addition of a new Standard and Recommendation focused on Equity and Justice was discussed, especially as we continued to work on the development of accreditation standards for CRPs. Ultimately, it was decided that simply adding a new Standard and Recommendation for the sake of adding one would not be in line with the work we are committed to doing. We then also committed to a goal to take a look at ALL of the Standards and Recommendations through an Equity and Justice lens to ensure that the next iteration of those Standards and Recommendations center Equity, Justice, & Inclusion throughout.
I am so proud of the work that we have been doing to create intentional spaces for conversation surrounding the Standards & Recommendations from ARHE. We hosted open discussion forums in November and December of 2022 and we were able to develop a proposal for updates to the Standards & Recommendations based on these discussions as well as the open sessions held at the 2022 Annual Conference. The Impact Report includes the revised Standards & Recommendations approved by the ARHE Board of Directors by majority vote in April 2023.
While there is still work to be done, this revision to the ARHE Standards & Recommendations is an important step in the advancement of the field of collegiate recovery.
I look forward to what is to come in 2023 and am so grateful to serve as Executive Director of this organization and being able to witness the growth and evolution of a field we all love so much.
Kristina M. Canfield, MEd
Executive Director