Recovery capital (RC) is the breadth and depth of internal and external resources that can be drawn upon to initiate and sustain recovery from severe AOD problems (Granfield & Cloud, 1999; Cloud & Granfield, 2004a). RC is conceptually linked to natural recovery, solution-focused therapy, strengths-based case management, recovery management, resilience and protective factors, and the ideas of hardiness, wellness and global health. There are three types of RC that can be influenced by addictions professionals. 

Personal RC can be divided into physical and human capital. A client’s physical RC includes: physical health; financial assets; health insurance; safe and recovery-conducive shelter; clothing; food; and access to transportation. Human RC includes a client’s values, knowledge, educational/vocational skills and credentials; problem solving capacities; self-awareness; self-esteem; self-efficacy (self-confidence in managing high risk situations); hopefulness/optimism; perception of one’s past/present/future; sense of meaning and purpose in life; and interpersonal skills.

Family/social RC encompasses intimate relationships; family and kinship relationships (defined here non-
traditionally, i.e., family of choice); and social relationships that are supportive of recovery efforts. Family/social RC is indicated by the willingness of intimate partners and family members to participate in treatment; the presence of others in recovery within the family and social network; access to sober outlets for sobriety-based fellowship/leisure; and relational connections to conventional institutions (school, workplace, church and other mainstream community organizations). 
Community RC encompasses community attitudes/policies/resources related to addiction and recovery that promote the resolution of AOD problems. Community RC includes:

• active efforts to reduce addiction/recovery-related stigma
• visible and diverse local recovery role models
• a full continuum of addiction treatment resources
• recovery mutual aid resources that are accessible and diverse
• local recovery community support institutions (recovery centers / clubhouses, treatment alumni associations, recovery homes, recovery schools, recovery industries, recovery ministries/churches)
• sources of sustained recovery support and early re-intervention (e.g., recovery checkups through treatment programs, employee assistance programs, professional assistance programs, drug courts or recovery community organizations)

Cultural capital is a form of community capital. It constitutes the local availability of culturally-prescribed pathways of recovery that resonate with particular individuals and families. Examples of such potential resonance include: Native Americans recovering through the “Initialization of AA” or the “Red Road”; or African Americans recovering within a faith-based recovery ministry or within an Afrocentric therapeutic orientation (Coyhis & White, 2006; White & Sanders, in press).

In total, RC constitutes the potential antidote for the problems that have long plagued recovery efforts: insufficient motivation to change AOD use; emotional distress; pressure to use within
intimate and social relationships; interpersonal conflict; and other situations that pose risks for relapse. 

The concept of RC reflects a shift in focus from the pathology of addiction to a focus on the internal and external assets required to initiate and sustain long-term recovery from AOD problems. As this concept permeates the field, addiction treatment programs will increase their involvement with families and communities, and addiction professionals will become more involved in recovery community building activities. RC has a contagious quality. It is time we all became its carriers.

The following key findings from recent scientific studies and reviews underscore the potential importance of RC.  

• RC, both its quantity and quality, plays a major role in determining the success or failure of natural and assisted recovery (e.g., recovery from AOD problems without or with participation in professional treatment or a recovery mutual aid society) (Granfield & Cloud, 1996, 1999; Moos & Moos, 2007; Kaskutas, Bond, & Humphreys, 2002).
• Increases in RC can spark turning points that end addiction careers; trigger recovery initiation; elevate coping abilities; and enhance quality of life in long-term recovery (Cloud & Granfield, 2004b; Laudet, Morgan, & White, 2006).
• Such turning points, both as climactic transformations and incremental change processes, may require the accumulation of RC across several years and multiple episodes of professional treatments (Dennis, Foss, & Scott, 2007).
• Elements of RC vary in importance within particular stages of long-term recovery (Laudet & White, in press).
• RC is not equally distributed across individuals and social groups.  Members of historically disempowered groups often seek recovery from addiction lacking assets that are taken for granted by those seeking recovery from a position of privilege (Cloud & Granfield, 2001).
• Post-treatment recovery check-ups, and, when needed, early re-
intervention can help preserve the RC developed through addiction treatment (Dennis, Scott, & Funk, 2003).
• Most clients with severely depleted family and community RC gain little from individually-focused addiction treatment that fails to mobilize family and community resources (Moos & Moos, 2007).
• Long-term recovery outcomes for those with the most severe AOD problems may have more to do with family and community RC than the attributes of individuals or a particular treatment protocol (Bromet & Moos, 1977; Humphreys, Moos, & Cohen, 1997; Mankowski, Humphreys, & Moos, 2001).

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This is an excerpt from Recovery Capital: A Primer for Addiction Professionals.