Standards and Certification

In 2012, the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) published the first national standards and began designating statewide affiliate organizations responsible for administering voluntary certification of recovery residences.

Standards

Benefits to a national standard include:

• Standardized nomenclature allows for more productive & meaningful conversations.
• Translates across states: different & changing laws
• Inclusive framework: 4 Levels of Support
• Unites fragmented knowledge base
• Facilitates the collection and promotion of best practices
• Offers a blueprint to new capacity & quality capacity
• Equips researchers with comparative subjects
• The basis for a certification program

Voluntary Certification

Benefits to a voluntary certification program include:

• Incentivizes fidelity to best practices (ideally through support and mentoring) rather than policing compliance (“carrots” over “sticks”)
• Promotes quality without raising impediments to fair housing choice
• Complements (not replaces) existing regulation
• A public-facing mechanism that empowers choices and instills confidence: consumers, funders, referral agents…
• Provides consumer protection and a grievance process
• Cost-effective and flexible over time