Established in 2010, Minnesota Recovery Connection was Minnesota’s first Recovery Community Organization.

Recovery Community Organizations, or RCOs, are independent, nonprofit, non-clinical organizations led and governed by representatives of local communities of recovery, including people in recovery from substance use disorder, their families, friends, and allies.

RCOs honor all pathways to recovery and are not treatment providers. Rather, they exist to fill gaps in and around treatment, which is typically a short-term, clinical intervention. RCOs offer the “primary care” essential to managing and preventing the chronic disease of substance use disorder. They also work to implement long-term systems changes, from how society views and supports people affected by substance use issues and substance use disorders, to instituting recovery-friendly public policies.

RCOs do this through one or more of these core functions:

• Peer-to-peer recovery support services
• Public education
• Advocacy