Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Committees hear request for $2 million to fund community-based chemical dependency recovery organizations

Recovering from chemical dependency is a lifelong journey with many ways to become derailed.

Minnesota can do more to help people in recovery stay on track by funding recovery community organizations, says Rep. Sydney Jordan (DFL-Mpls).

“Recovery community organizations are community based nonprofits that provide free, non-clinical recovery support services for anyone who needs help at any point in their recovery journey,” she said. “They fill in the gaps people need before, during and after treatment.”

Jordan sponsors HF2084, which would appropriate $2 million from the General Fund in both years of the 2022-23 biennium to the Department of Human Services for grants to recovery community organizations.

The House Human Services Finance and Policy Committee held the bill over Wednesday for possible omnibus bill inclusion. There is no Senate companion.

Unlike hospitals and licensed private practitioners, recovery community organizations are not eligible to receive state reimbursement for chemical dependency treatment services.

Wendy Jones, executive director of St. Paul-based Minnesota Recovery Connection, said recovery community organizations can provide a peer recovery specialist, a “trained, neutral professional provider who has that lived experience of substance abuse disorder and recovery themselves.”

A specialist would not be a person’s sponsor in a 12-step program such as Alcoholics Anonymous, but arranging a connection to a sponsor would be one of many services a specialist could provide.

“People initiate recovery in treatment, but they don’t recover there,” said Farhia Budul, who describes herself as an East African woman in long-term recovery.

“When people graduate from treatment, they can benefit from Recovery Community Organizations. This is where they get recovery. This is where recovery is possible. They recover in the community. RCOs save money for the state and reduce recidivism,” Budul said in written testimony.


Related Articles


Priority Dailies

House passes tax package that includes rebate checks, $1 billion in new revenues
Rep. Aisha Gomez and House Majority Leader Jamie Long talk during a break in the May 20 debate on HF1938, the tax finance and policy bill. (Photo by Catherine Davis) Is it the largest tax cut in Minnesota history? Or the biggest tax hike the state has ever experienced? Could it be both? That’s the crux of the debate about the conference ...
House passes finalized cannabis legalization bill, sends it to Senate
A supporter of cannabis legalization demonstrates in front of the Capitol in 2021. The House repassed a bill to legalize recreational cannabis, as amended in conference committee, May 18 and sent HF100 to the Senate. (House Photography file photo) The House gave the green light to adult-use recreational cannabis Thursday. “The day has finally arrived. Today is the day that we are going to vote here in the House for th...

Minnesota House on Twitter