September marks National Recovery Month, a time dedicated to celebrating the millions of individuals in recovery, honoring the dedicated professionals and communities who support them, and affirming that recovery is possible for everyone.
Across college and university campuses, this month offers a powerful opportunity to combat stigma, amplify student voices, and expand visibility for collegiate recovery programs. Whether your campus is hosting sober social events, panel discussions, or educational outreach, engaging your community helps ensure that every student knows they do not have to navigate recovery alone.
To help plan your campus initiatives, explore the comprehensive digital resources available through SAMHSA’s National Recovery Month Toolkit alongside event planning guides, advocacy tools, and the central events calendar hosted by Faces & Voices of Recovery. Together, these platforms offer downloadable assets, proclamation templates, and messaging frameworks to elevate your campus outreach and connect your community to national efforts all month long.
Ways to Get Involved This Month:
- Host a Campus Event: Organize sober gatherings, open houses, or speaker panels highlighting student recovery journeys.
- Leverage the SAMHSA Toolkit: Utilize ready-made graphics and outreach materials to spread awareness across your digital channels.
- Celebrate Milestones: Recognize the courage, perseverance, and achievements of students, staff, and faculty in recovery.
To make sharing on your own channels even easier, ARHE has also created a few Recovery Month social media graphics tailored specifically for collegiate recovery. Download the above graphics to enhance your campus feeds, amplify your program's reach, and celebrate your students all September long!
Recovery doesn’t just happen in community—it helps students thrive where they are. 🎓✨
Collegiate Recovery Programs (CRPs) prove that students do not have to choose between their education and their recovery. By providing dedicated substance-free study spaces, peer accountability, and academic mentorship, CRPs nationwide empower students to achieve high GPAs, stay enrolled, and graduate with confidence.
This #RecoveryMonth, let’s invest in campus environments where students in recovery can excel in the classroom and beyond.
👉 Learn more about collegiate recovery at www.collegiaterecovery.org
#RecoveryMonth2026 #RecoveryMonth #CollegiateRecovery #HigherEdRecovery #RecoveryIsREAL #StudentSuccess #RecoveryCapital #StudentRecovery
Navigating college life in recovery shouldn't be an isolating journey. 🤝💜
Campus culture often normalizes high-risk substance use, making it challenging for sober students to find their circle. Collegiate Recovery Programs create safe, vibrant, and substance-free spaces where students connect with peers who share their lived experiences and values.
From sober tailgates and wellness retreats to weekly all-recovery meetings, peer connection is the cornerstone of collegiate recovery.
Tag a campus or advocate doing the work to ensure every student finds their community! 👇
#RecoveryMonth2026 #RecoveryMonth #CollegiateRecovery #HigherEdRecovery #RecoveryIsREAL #StudentRecovery #RecoveryCommunity #PeerSupport
What is Recovery Capital? It is the sum of resources, relationships, and skills a person has to build and sustain long-term wellness. 🌿🌱
Collegiate Recovery Programs are intentional engines for building recovery capital during critical formative years. On campus, students develop:
🔹 Personal Capital: Coping strategies, emotional fitness, and self-advocacy.
🔹 Social Capital: Healthy networks of friends, faculty mentors, and alumni.
🔹 Professional Capital: Leadership opportunities, career readiness, and resume-building roles.
When we support collegiate recovery, we equip emerging leaders with the tools for a lifetime of resilience.
#RecoveryMonth2026 #RecoveryMonth #CollegiateRecovery #HigherEdRecovery #RecoveryIsREAL #StudentRecovery #RecoveryCapital #StudentLeadership #WellnessInHigherEd #MentalHealthMatters
Every college campus has students in recovery. Does yours have a space for them? 🏫🏛️
Collegiate Recovery Programs transform institutional culture. By reducing stigma and providing structured support, CRPs increase retention, improve student well-being, and save lives.
This September, join ARHE in helping promote recovery-ready campuses:
✅ Advocate for CRP resources on your campus
✅ Partner with local recovery community organizations
✅ Share stories of hope and resilience #RecoveryMonth2026 #RecoveryMonth #CollegiateRecovery #HigherEdRecovery #RecoveryIsREAL #StudentRecover #RecoveryReadyCampuses #ARHE #HigherEducation #StigmaFreeCampus
- Updates from ARHE — brief updates on current initiatives.
- Member feedback — your chance to share your voice and help shape ARHE’s work.
- Peer connection across regions — ask questions, share resources, and strengthen your network
The SAFE Project Collegiate Recovery Leadership Academy (CRLA) application is now open!
The CRLA is an academic-year-long fellowship for college students passionate about the intersections of addiction and mental health recovery, leadership, and advocacy.
CRLA Fellows design and implement a prevention, harm reduction, or recovery-focused Impact Project on their campus. Throughout the program, Fellows receive advocacy and leadership training, attend two in-person events, and join a supportive national cohort of student leaders committed to shifting the culture in higher education.
Applications will close Sunday, September 13.
If you know students who are passionate about creating positive change on their campuses—we encourage you to share this opportunity with them!
You can learn more and access the application, as well as FAQs and the Fellowship Agreements here: https://www.safeproject.us/campuses/leadership-academy/
Thank you for helping us connect with passionate student leaders. Please feel free to reach out to Vic Menz (victoria@safeproject.us), Assistant Director of SAFE Campuses, with any questions about the program.
Training: 34th Annual Recovery Happens
Come to CCAPP's annual "Recovery Happens" to increase awareness and understanding of mental health and substance use disorders and celebrate who recover.
Free to attend, the event includes a recovery walk, a 12-Step meeting, a pancake breakfast, a rally, and a wide range of speakers.
Date: September 2, 2026
Location: Sacramento, California
For more information and to register: https://recoveryhappens.info/
Help us spread the word! CHEARR, the Collaborative Hub for Emerging Adult Recovery Research, has an exciting opportunity for persons impacted by the opioid use crisis to join our national community boards and influence research on how to best support young people in recovery from opioid use disorder. Community board meetings are held remotely, you will be paid for your time, and serving on a board provides an outstanding opportunity to use your voice and lived experience to impact research on this topic. We are currently recruiting for two boards:
Young Adults in Recovery Community Board
We are looking for young adults (ages 18-28) who are in recovery and have lived experience receiving treatment involving medications for opioid use disorder.
Peer Recovery Support Specialist Community Board
We are looking for certified peer recovery specialists and recovery coaches who have experience working with young adults and have worked in settings where medications for opioid use disorder are offered as a treatment option.
Complete the online application here: https://uconn.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d4kTCsgJxGCJfaC
No previous board experience or research experience is required. There are also no educational requirements, and all training will be provided.
- Please see our website for more information about the Community Boards: chearr.org
- You are welcome to contact our team with questions before you apply: chearr@uchc.edu
- Commitment: Board meetings are held 6-9 times per year; meetings last 90 minutes
- Compensation: $150 for each meeting (if chosen to be a facilitator by your peers, $225 for each meeting)
The presentation will examine the role of collegiate recovery programs (CRPs) in supporting students with substance use disorders and promoting long-term recovery. It will review the history and evidence behind CRPs, highlight their impact on academic success and degree completion, and discuss the need for recovery-friendly campuses. The presentation will also feature a case example of efforts to establish a CRP at a public university in Central Appalachia.
The presentation will be led by Keilan Rickard, PhD, ABPP, a licensed psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at East Tennessee State University.
Event Details:
- Date: September 18, 2026
- Time: 12:00–1:00 PM EST
- Registration: https://tinyurl.com/5xncxjvz
- Questions: SBI@etsu.edu
We would greatly appreciate it if you could share or advertise this presentation with affiliated individuals, organizations, and partners who you feel may benefit from the topic, including those working in higher education, behavioral health, addiction and recovery services, student support, psychology, social work, or related fields.
We have attached a flyer with the event information that you are welcome to share with your networks, including through email lists, newsletters, social media, websites, or other communication channels.
Thank you for helping us reach the people and organizations who may find this presentation valuable. We truly appreciate your support.
If you have any questions, please email us at SBI@etsu.edu, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Strong BRAIN Insitute
This map, which got started years ago, called “Lost Loved Ones,” has been rebranded to add recovery stories. The map publishers are doing a soft launch now and a bigger announcement in Recovery Month.
The Recovery and Remembrance Map allows families and friends to add loved ones lost to opioids and addiction and for people to add their stories of recovery. There is tremendous stigma around addiction and this map is intended to show people of all walks of life all over are impacted. Click each picture for a story. To add a loved one fill out this form.
The National Safety Council is America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate.
2026 Annual Conference Recordings & CEs Now Available!
The full library of recordings from the 2026 ARHE/ARS/AAPG Annual Conference is now live and ready to view. With over 104 hours of enduring Continuing Education (CE) credits available, you can revisit powerful keynotes, catch up on breakout sessions you missed, and continue building your professional toolkit.
For Conference Attendees: You can access all session recordings immediately through the Eventscribe mobile app or by logging in to the desktop portal here.
- Did you pre-purchase enduring CEs? Detailed instructions on how to claim your credits have been sent to your inbox.
- Want to add enduring CEs to your registration? It’s not too late! Contact us at conference@collegiaterecovery.org to upgrade your access.
For Non-Attendees: If you couldn’t join us in Denver this year, you can still access the complete on-demand video library and earn enduring CEs. Click here to purchase full access to the 2026 Conference Recordings.
The path to recovery is a journey from self-discovery to action. In The Little Book of College Sobriety: Living Happy, Healthy, and Free, media entrepreneur and author Susan Packard brings together moving stories from college students, graduates, and a mother navigating recovery. Readers can also listen along directly via pre-recorded audio tracks embedded within the book.
“I’ve come to know hundreds of teens and young adults in recovery, and I’m in awe of their courage and fortitude. We should do all we can to continue supporting them and ARHE, who does a wonderful job of providing resources and support.” — Susan Packard
100% of proceeds directly support the Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE), advancing resources for collegiate recovery communities nationwide.
Ways to Utilize This Book in Your Community
- Collegiate Recovery Program Libraries: Stock your shelves with relatable peer stories and practical emotional fitness tools.
- Milestone & Graduation Gifts: Celebrate sobriety milestones, semesters completed, and commencements.
- Event Giveaways: Share copies with attendees at campus wellness fairs, regional summits, or recovery events.
- Donor & Partner Appreciation: Gift copies as a meaningful thank-you to program supporters, advisory boards, and community partners.
Campus Spotlight: Saint Leo University Launches Derek J. Mitchell Collegiate Recovery Program
In an inspiring effort to transform personal loss into hope, Pasco County philanthropists Dewey and Becky Mitchell have contributed a founding $1 million gift to Saint Leo University to establish the Derek J. Mitchell Collegiate Recovery Program. Named in honor of their late son, the initiative establishes Florida’s only residential collegiate recovery program at a private Catholic institution.
Modeled after Augsburg University’s nationally recognized StepUP® framework, the program provides students with dedicated on-campus sober housing, clinical counseling, peer mentorship, and recovery-supportive social programming. This milestone gift addresses a critical need in higher education by offering structured accountability, community, and resources to help students thrive academically while sustaining long-term recovery.
[ Read the Full Story ]
The Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE) has been added as a referenced resource in the newly updated edition of For Teenagers Living With a Parent Who Abuses Alcohol/Drugs by Edith Lynn Hornik-Beer.
The update appears in Chapter 14, which lists external organizations, contact numbers, and websites for individuals seeking help. We appreciate the author including ARHE within the chapter's directory of national resources, expanding general awareness of collegiate recovery support for readers exploring higher education pathways.
Funding for this initiative was made possible by grant no. 1H79TI088079 from SAMHSA. The views expressed in materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does the mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
The Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery (CYAAR) at Kennesaw State University, Georgia (USA) started the Collegiate Recovery Research Collaborative (CRRC) in 2017. The Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE) is excited to now host the CRRC to allow researchers to connect, collaborate, and progress important research topics within the profession of collegiate recovery.
Currently, the CRRC meets once a month on the first Thursday of the month at 12pm ET / 11am CT / 10am MT / 9am PT. Project-specific meetings may take place outside of this time.
