Are you familiar with the phrase “If you build it, they will come”? This famous quote comes from the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams” and is often used to mean that if you create something good or worthwhile, people will naturally be drawn to it. This quote seems to perfectly describe the work that we’ve been doing here at ICARE and IAPRC for the past few years. We are building a Center of Excellence where people are now being drawn to us and the BEST is yet to come.

The International Association of Professional Recovery Coaches (IAPRC) was established in 2013, with the first coaches graduating in 2014. Since that time, we have trained thousands of professional life and recovery coaches, and addiction awareness facilitators from more than 40 nations.

We consider the feedback that we receive from our students to be a gift, consequently we have continued to improve and expand our programs over the years, resulting in the Certified Professional Recovery Coach (CPRC) program being named the “Best Overall Recovery Coach Certification program” in 2023 by Life Coach Magazine.

Similarly, our Certified Facilitator in Addiction Awareness for Human Resources (CFAA-HR) program was awarded the prestigious “Pinnacle Award” by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

As exciting as these things are, we have so much more to share. Let’s briefly look at some of the most significant accomplishments of the year.

Improvements to the iCoachRecovery membership association:

ICoachRecovery is IAPRC’s professional development membership association. The membership program was upgraded this year to offer a comprehensive support system for your personal and professional growth. The program facilitates the expansion of networking, continuous learning, career advancement, and community engagement for our students and graduates. You can read more about the benefits of membership here: Membership Benefits

Establishment of the Credential Renewal Program:

Professional credentials are highly valued in the marketplace and offer many benefits to those who receive them. Professional certifications establish credibility, enhance career opportunities, and validate the skills and expertise of those who have earned the credentials. IAPRC currently issues the following professional credentials: CPC, CPRC, CFAA, CFAA-HR, CCRC. The Credential Renewal program was established this year for CPC’s and CPRC’s.

Hazelden Betty Ford Subscription program access:

We are so thankful to have established a relationship with Hazelden Betty Ford to provide our Professional Recovery Coaches with a one-year Essentials Level subscription to the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Learning and Resource Center. Hazelden has never provided this type of access to Recovery Coaches before, but they recognize the importance and the value of the work that we do to train and certify professional recovery coaches, and they want to support our efforts. The subscription provides you access to evidence-based curricula and full programs with facilitation guides and interactive content, along with many helpful articles, videos and pamphlets to share with clients. In addition, you will have access to professional education on emerging topics related to effective treatment of mental health and substance use disorders. Your use of these materials can be applied toward your CPRC credential renewal.

Expanded partnership with TouchPoint Productions:

We are delighted to announce that we are expanding our relationship with Paul Steinbroner and TouchPoint productions. We currently offer five amazing videos from the TouchPoint video library on the topics of Marijuana, Alcohol, Roots of Addiction, Opiates and Relapse. In 2024, in addition to continuing to provide you with access to these videos individually, we will be bundling these videos into a package that also includes detailed commentary on each substance by Dr. Wendy Wiehl, a board-certified pharmacologist. A second bundle consisting of six additional topics is also being produced…Stay tuned. These videos can be used toward credential renewal. You can read more about the videos we currently offer here: Mini courses

Partnership with University of Wisconsin Stephens Point:

We are very excited to have entered a partnership with the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point (UWSP). UWSP’s School of Health Sciences and Wellness offers a Health and Wellness Coaching Certification that is approved by the National Board of Health & Wellness Coaches (NBHWC). UWSP – Stevens Point now offers our CPRC program as Continuing Education and Outreach, providing 40 CE credits through the NBHWC. Dr. Brian Krolczyk, Director of the Health & Wellness Coaching Certificate program and Jennifer Hess, Associate Director, are strong friends and allies of IAPRC. If you know folks who are NBHWC certified, want to become a CPRC and need CE credits, please send them here to register for our CPRC program through UWSP.
Register Here

Partnership with Aerobodies, Inc.:

After months of working through the WELCOA (Wellness Council of America) network, we have established a strategic partnership with Aerobodies, Inc. Aerobodies is a woman-owned, national health and wellness service provider specializing in Corporate Wellness Solutions for organizations. Since 1997, Aerobodies has provided federal and state agencies and private industry companies with a wide range of health, wellness and program management services. Through this partnership, we will be able to provide ICARE Workforce Solutions, including our Professional and Corporate Recovery Coaches, Certified Addiction Awareness Facilitators (CFAA and CFAA-HR), Management Training, Healthy Self-Checkup, and other services. You can read the Press Release announcing this partnership here: Aerobodies Press Release

Certified Facilitators in Addiction Awareness (CFAA, CFAA-HR) train-the-trainer programs:

Beginning in 2019, at the request of many of our CPRC students and graduates, we began developing our Certified Facilitator in Addiction Awareness train-the-trainer certification program. The purpose of the program is to prepare individuals to lead and facilitate conversations around substance misuse, addiction, and recovery in the workplace. Certified Facilitators are empowered to deliver webinars and/or workshops that create psychological safety and raise awareness to heal the sickness of silence that exists within the workplace relating to substance misuse and addiction. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the unprecedented number of overdose deaths, largely attributable to the synthetic opioid, Fentanyl, we received a contract from Career Source Central Florida (local workforce board) to provide training to Human Resource practitioners in the workplace.

We modified our original 14-hour CFAA program by adding 6 additional hours of HR and workplace specific content to create another CFAA-HR program. To date, we have trained more than 200 Certified Facilitators from Florida, around the US and internationally. Because of the unique community partnership that was involved in the development of the CFAA-HR program, the program received the highest-level national award (Pinnacle Award) from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). This next CFAA / CFAA-HR class is scheduled for February 2024. You can read about the programs here: CFAA & HR Programs and the Press Release about the award here: Press Release

After years of ‘building’ in anticipation of a future need and demand for our products, services, and solutions in the marketplace, we are now finally beginning to realize a shift that is taking place. Thanks in large part of the efforts of our Marketing and Public Relations team members, our strategic partners, distribution channel partners, affiliates, current students, graduates, instructors, and other allies, we are now firmly established as a world-class Center of Excellence. We are recognized by consumers, corporations, service providers, government entities, and countless others nationally and internationally, as a provider of high-quality training and credentialing services and workforce solutions.

Future expansion:
Through our three divisions (NET Training Institute, IAPRC and ICARE Workforce Solutions) we have nurtured, equipped and trained more than 40 thousand Mental / Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorder clinical and non-clinical practitioners, Life and Recovery Coaches, Addiction Awareness Facilitators and others across the U.S. and in more than 40 nations worldwide.

We have earned our seat at the table and are working directly with the following initiatives:

• Recovery Ready Workplace (RRW) (national initiative through the Biden-Harris Administration) Read more here
• Recovery Friendly Workplace (RFW) (National State-Level Community of Practice). Beginning in New Hampshire under Governor Chris Sununu, RFW has now expanded to more than 33 states and in 2024 will be launching a Nationwide Recovery Friendly Workplace initiative in partnership with support and funding from the national RRW initiative. Read full article here
• Project Opioid USA: Since its launch in Florida for the purpose of bringing together community partners to combat the Opioid and Fentanyl crises, Project Opioid is now expanding nationwide, through strategic alliances and partnerships at the local and state level. The Project Opioid model encourages collaboration and partnerships among and between Law Enforcement officers, Treatment providers, Faith communities, and other groups (ex: the Wounded Warrior Project.)
• Faces & Voices of Recovery: Faces & Voices of Recovery, founded in 2001, works at that national level to change the way addiction and recovery are understood and embraced through advocacy, education, and leadership. The organization advances recovery wellness efforts at every level by connecting, organizing, and mobilizing millions of faces and voices. Through collective efforts in recovery advocacy, community support, and education, they promote the right of every individual and family to recover from substance use disorder, while demonstrating the value and impact of long-term recovery.We will be meeting with representatives from this organization in January 2024, to explore ways that we can work together. On a special note, they are in the process of launching an “Our Stories Have Power” campaign and if you have a recovery story that you would like to share publicly, you can Submit Here.

Corporate Recovery Coaching:

In preparation for continued expansion through our ICARE Workforce Solutions division, we anticipate the need for more Corporate Certified Recovery Coaches (CCRC’s). If you are enrolled in, or a graduate of our CPRC program, you can read more about, and enroll in our CCRC program here: Enroll Now

In addition, there are many professional coaches who are already working with corporate clients (Life / Executive / Health & Wellness Coaches) who may desire to work with us to service Corporate Clients, but who may not have the time or other resources needed to commit to the full CPRC / CCRC programs. With that in mind, we are in the final stages of developing a shorter Addiction Recovery Coaching (ARC) Intensive Certificate program. Participants in this program will not earn the CPRC or CCRC credentials but may be eligible to work with ICARE to provide some contract coaching services through IAPRC. More information will be provided on this program in 2024.

Recovery Peer Specialist Program:

We have been closely monitoring changes to State and National standards for individuals seeking to be credentialed as Recovery Peer Specialists. To meet professional standards for Peers, we have been in conversations with groups like NAMI Florida at the same time reviewing and revising our current Recovery Peer Specialist curriculum. New national standards have now been established and we will begin selling our new and improved 40-hour Recovery Peer Specialist training program (that will include 16 hours of Live WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) training in the 1st quarter of 2024.

So, this concludes my brief summary of some of the highlights of 2023, as well as previews of 2024 coming attractions. If you would like to become more involved in working with us to bring together people and processes to overcome society’s challenges through training, certification, professional and peer development, please reach out to us at info@icare-aware.org. We want to hear from you.