Certification
- Determine if your organization meets the basic framework of a Recovery Community Organization.
- Complete a self-assessment to help identify your organization’s areas of strength and opportunities for growth as an RCO.
- Meet with MARCO staff to review your self-assessment.
- If needed, work with MARCO staff to get coaching and mentorship, connect to resources, and create a work plan for completing items needing improvement.
- Gather documents and other items needed to complete the application.
- Answer application questions and upload required materials.
- MARCO staff conducts a preliminary review and requests missing materials, if any.
- MARCO confirms with you that the application is ready for review.
- 3-5 Peer Review Council members review submitted application materials.
- MARCO staff member and a Peer Review Council member make a scheduled in-person site visit.
- Peer Review Council convenes and discusses findings.
- Peer Review Council makes a recommendation to MARCO.
- MARCO Board of Directors reviews the Peer Review Council’s recommendations and makes a certification determination.
- The organization is certified or asked to make improvements and reapply.
MARCO Certification FAQ’s
The MARCO Recovery Community Organization Certification is a process that strengthens an organization’s service to the recovery community and demonstrates its commitment to the RCO model. Our certification has five core goals:
Capacity
Certification helps all organizations, whether emerging or established, strengthen the core organizational functions, systems, and processes that enable RCOs to execute their missions and serve the recovery community.
Accountability
RCOs are accountable to the communities they serve. Certification promotes organizational transparency and establishes a framework for the community-based processes that uphold the RCO’s mission and purpose.
Fidelity
RCOs play a critical role in the continuum of care. Certification ensures they are faithful to the principles and practices that define RCOs and make them agents of long-term system change.
Visibility
Certified RCOs receive recognition for their commitment to the recovery community and the quality of their services. They join a statewide network of grassroots organizations working together to strengthen recovery in Minnesota.
Sustainability
Certification helps RCOs build financial operations, develop programs, connect to resources, and gain knowledge that strengthens their long-term sustainability to keep delivering critical services into the future.
The RCO certification is a 5-step process which includes:
1. Self Assessment
2. Application Prep
3. Application
4. Application Review
5. Certification
At this time, there is no cost to organizations to go through the MARCO certification process. MARCO is funded through a grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which makes it possible for us to provide this service to the recovery community free of charge.
There are currently two pathways to certification in Minnesota.
MARCO: MARCO (Minnesota Alliance for Recovery Community Organizations) certification is offered free of charge to organizations interested in certification in the state of Minnesota.
FAVOR: FAVOR (Faces and Voices of Recovery) certification is a fee-based program offered to organizations nation-wide.