Recovery Iowa
Discover resources & knowledge
Recovery Iowa, from the Public Science Collaborative, offers resource maps, meeting and coach finders, recovery education, research, and community assessments.
Explore Recovery IowaINDEPENDENT ORGANIZATIONS. SHARED POSSIBILITY.
Local roots.
Statewide connection.
Recovery support should be easier to reach—and connection should continue after the first hello.
RCO Iowa brings recovery communities together around shared public infrastructure, so organizations can collaborate and people can find a meaningful next step across Iowa.
Urban and rural. Many pathways. A place for everyone.
THE DIGITAL FRONTIERA SHARED VISION
Local relationships,
connected across distance.
connected across distance.
SHARED INFRASTRUCTUREINDEPENDENT ORGANIZATIONSLOCAL LEADERSHIPSTATEWIDE CONNECTION
01 / THE PURPOSE
A stronger recovery community.
Built together.
A person should not have to understand a service system to find someone who can walk alongside them.
And an organization should not have to build every tool alone to make that connection possible.
RCO Iowa is a public-service platform for Recovery Community Organizations, recovery centers, coaches, navigators, recovery housing providers, coalitions, and community partners. Its next phase brings statewide collaboration and shared digital tools into one connected effort.
Independent organizations retain their identity, governance, programs, and decisions. Participation creates opportunities to work together.
02 / OUR PLACE IN THE ECOSYSTEM
Build on what Iowa
already has.
Recovery Iowa and RCO Iowa have similar names. They are distinct efforts. The opportunity is to make existing resources more useful through ongoing human connection.
RCO Iowa
Collaborate across communities
A public-service platform developing shared convening, organizational participation, practical collaboration, and a way to bring community-identified barriers into shared problem-solving.
Shape the shared platformRecoveryOS
Help connection continue
An RCO Iowa initiative developing the digital tools for accountable follow-through, participant-authorized peer connection, and continuity across participating organizations.
Meet the initiativeUse existing resources. Strengthen what happens next.
We link to Recovery Iowa for resource discovery rather than rebuild its maps, research library, or policy tracker. Our proposed contribution is the collaboration and follow-through around a connection.
These roles are a proposed approach to complementarity. No formal partnership, endorsement, or data integration with Recovery Iowa, the Public Science Collaborative, or Iowa HHS is represented.
03 / THE RECOVERYOS INITIATIVE
The tools behind
lasting connection.
Shared technology should strengthen local relationships.
RecoveryOS is being developed as an RCO Iowa initiative: reusable digital infrastructure that organizations can use to support their own people, programs, and partnerships.
Grace For Addictions is the first implementing organization. The direction is broader participation across Iowa, with onboarding, access, costs, and shared governance to be defined openly before statewide enrollment.
Discuss an organizational pilotDevelopment initiative. Statewide organizational enrollment is not yet open.
ONE CONNECTED VISION
RCO Iowa
Statewide participation, convening, and collaboration.
rcoiowa.orgIowa’s Recovery Community Center
A digital front door designed to help people find support and take part across geography.
recoverycommunity.center · open the community center ↗RecoveryOS
Shared tools for consent, accountable connection, and continued engagement.
recoverycommunity.app · open RecoveryOS ↗Open the existing community center or RecoveryOS experience above. Organizational pilot participation is coordinated separately.
04 / CLOSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
A digital frontier
with people at its heart.
Distance, limited connectivity, and small organizational budgets should not decide who can participate. The shared platform is being designed around practical access.
Reach across distance
Connect rural and urban communities while preserving local relationships and choice.
Share useful tools
Reduce the need for each organization to build separate systems for the same work.
Keep human options
Prioritize mobile-friendly access, simple navigation, and assisted participation. Digital tools alone do not solve device or broadband barriers.
05 / WHAT SUCCESS MEANS
A real connection.
With permission.
Participant-authorized, completed peer connection is the primary outcome.
A referral starts a possibility. A completed peer connection means the person and a peer actually connected, with the person’s permission.
- PRIMARY OUTCOMECompleted peer connection
Track whether an authorized connection actually happened.
- DOWNSTREAM OUTCOMEService connection
Track whether a chosen next service was reached.
- DOWNSTREAM OUTCOMESustained engagement
Track continued participation within a defined follow-up period.
The proposed reporting standard shows each stage’s count, denominator, time window, and unreachable participants explicitly. Definitions and consent rules will be agreed before shared reporting begins.
06 / STEWARDSHIP & TRUST
Independent voices.
A shared future.
Grace For Addictions founded and helps maintain RCO Iowa as a public service to RCOs and recovery-community partners across Iowa to identify gaps, strengthen recovery infrastructure, and collaborate to remove barriers to recovery support for urban and rural communities across the state.
GFA provides founding coordination and stewardship. Thomas DeGarmeaux, through GFA, is behind the initial development of RecoveryOS. That origin is part of the story; the purpose is infrastructure that can serve participating organizations statewide.
Organizational autonomy
Participation does not give GFA or another participant authority over an organization’s operations.
Shared governance to build
Representative participation, transparent decision rights, conflict-of-interest rules, and a way to raise concerns must be developed with participants.
Choice & permission
Participation does not imply shared access to personal records, endorsement of advocacy positions, or required use of RecoveryOS.
Clear responsibilities
Platform stewardship, organizational decisions, technology access, and public accountability need distinct, written boundaries.
RCO Iowa is a public-service platform, not a coalition, credentialing body, or authority over participating organizations. It complements public systems and existing community leadership.
07 / MAKE THE NEXT CONNECTION
Bring your perspective.
Build what’s next.
Organizations, people with lived experience, families, rural communities, and system partners all have something essential to contribute.
Help shape shared infrastructure.
Discuss your organization’s needs, contribute to a governance conversation, or explore a future RecoveryOS pilot.
An inquiry starts a conversation. It does not enroll your organization or grant access to shared records.
Find a useful next step today.
Recovery Iowa offers established tools to find meetings, coaches, recovery housing, and other resources.
Explore recovery resourcesYou can browse this RCO Iowa page and follow resource links without creating an account.
Connect community insight with action.
Explore how convening, reentry continuity, rural access, and participant-authorized follow-through could complement your work.
Proposed collaboration is subject to agreed scope, roles, and permissions.
Good questions.
Clear answers.
Is RCO Iowa the same as Recovery Iowa?
No. Recovery Iowa is the Public Science Collaborative’s resource and information website. RCO Iowa is a distinct public-service platform developing shared recovery-community collaboration and digital infrastructure. We direct visitors to existing Recovery Iowa resources.
Do organizations have to become part of GFA?
No. The intended participation model preserves each organization’s governance, identity, services, funding relationships, and decisions. GFA’s role is founding stewardship and coordination.
Can my organization sign up for RecoveryOS today?
Statewide enrollment is not open on this page. You can request a pilot conversation. Operational readiness, organizational permissions, onboarding, support, costs, data responsibilities, and governance must be established before access is provided.
Will organizations automatically share participant information?
No. Platform participation is not permission to share personal records. Any future cross-organization connection workflow needs defined access, participant authorization, and appropriate organizational agreements.
Who handles inquiries during development?
Thomas DeGarmeaux at Grace For Addictions handles initial coordination as the founding steward. With your permission, this page securely saves your inquiry in RecoveryOS for the founding coordinator to review.