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About Us - Strategic and Operational Plan

Recovery Acres Society – Strategic and Operational Plan – 2025

On March 22nd, 2023 Recovery Acres held a staff meeting for all employees and conducted a SWOT analysis. The Board of Directors, key funders, and community partners were also consulted for their feedback. From these consultations we have developed the following Strategic Plan for the organization.

This Strategic Plan is reviewed annually by staff, as well as by the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting. A SWOT analysis will be done by the organization’s staff every three years.

The strategic goals below will outline where we are now and where we wish to go, while the operation plan for each will identify the steps we plan to take to help us achieve our strategic goals.

Where are we now?

Recovery Acres is a long-running residential treatment program that provides critical services to adult men seeking support to deal with their addictions and to become prosocial members of the community. We have developed vital transitional housing services to the graduates of our program to improve long term outcomes. We have also developed long-term supportive housing services to further provide ongoing support for our clients and other men and women who seek ongoing addictions support post-graduation of a treatment program.

To address the increasing complexity of the needs of our clients, Recovery Acres has developed programing that meets our clients where they are at and follows trauma-informed principles at all stages. Our programs treat the whole client and adhere to best practices, and are designed specifically to address the concurrent mental health challenges of our clients.

These supports work to address the complex nature of addiction and provide multiple services along the continuum of care, with the intent to decrease the need for client transitions and avoid the gaps in the system.

Where are we going?

There are two themes for our strategic goals: 1) Residential Treatment; 2) Supported Housing



1) Residential Treatment

A. Strategic Goal: Meet the ever-changing needs of our clients to achieve the best outcomes

Our SWOT analysis and consultation acknowledges the need for client supports that adapt and change with the needs of the population we serve. Recovery Acres follows current best practices that align with the needs of the population we serve.

A. Operational Plan: Meet the ever-changing needs of our clients to achieve the best outcomes

Recovery Acres regularly reviews, develops, and hones the program material to address the growing complexity of our clients’ needs. We regularly monitor client outcomes to ensure we are providing the care and programming that will lead to the best results for our clients, their families, and the community. By tracking the successes of the clients coming into our program; we are able to monitor program completion, graduation, discharges, and successful transitions into the community. As part of our licensing requirements, the results of these analyses are reported to Alberta Health Services.

Additionally, our counselors routinely update our program material to align with best practices and best serve the needs of our clients. There are two main ways our counselors attain the information for updating our program material:

  1. Through ongoing training, workshops, and seminars. Our counselors engage in various forms of continuing education and training in order to keep up with the best practices for residential treatment and align our course material accordingly.
  2. Through client exit surveys which are completed at the end of each program stage. These surveys provide valuable information regarding which aspects of our programming are successful and which ones need to be updated or amended.



B. Strategic Goal: Safe Post-Pandemic Operation

Recovery Acres will take everything we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic about operating a residential treatment facility and apply those learnings to our post-pandemic operations in order to provide staff, clients and visitor with a safe environment to work and recovery in.

B. Operational Plan: Safe Post-Pandemic Operation

Recovery Acres will take the following steps to ensure we have adequate Infection Prevention and Control (IP&C) measures in place to provide staff, clients and visitor a safe place to live and work:

  1. Appropriate and adequate signage will be posted throughout the residential treatment facility. Signage will include information on IP&C measures including physical distancing, proper hand hygiene including how to hand wash and how to use hand sanitizer; how to properly don and doff masks; isolation and masking obligations; and proper dishwashing techniques.
  2. The residential treatment facility will be monitored for having adequate soap, hand sanitizer and IP&C compliant cleaning products available at all times.
  3. Recovery Acres staff will remind all clients of required IP&C measures at the weekly house meeting.



C. Strategic Goal: Achieve Accreditation through Accreditation Canada

As part of our commitment to consistent improvement and betterment, Recovery Acres will undergo the process of accreditation with the support from Accreditation Canada.

C. Operational Plan: Achieve Accreditation through Accreditation Canada

Recovery Acres will prepare all of the documentation for our scheduled Primer Survey in June, 2024. Shortly after completion of the Primer, we will review all requirements for the Qmentum survey, currently scheduled for June, 2026.

We have most of the human resources necessary for this process but will be eliciting the support of an external expert to ensure our success. While we currently have most of the required infrastructure and information management systems in place, we recognize the need to organize and update our existing documentation for review and determine which areas require more work.



D. Strategic Goal: Operate on budget

As a not-for-profit contracted agency with limited fundraising income, it is vital that Recovery Acres operates at or below budget each year.

D. Operational Plan: Operate on budget

Recent increases in the cost of food, fuel, program, etc. requires Recovery Acres to do an expense review to identify ways to decrease our expenditures without sacrificing our clients’ programs and experiences with us. This will include conducting a vendor comparison to see where we can save money on food, cleaning supplies and office equipment and supplies wherever possible.

A review of staff wages and salaries will be conducted to determine where we can decrease expenditure.

Alberta’s Mental Health Services Protection Act requires an annual submission of our budget and financial statements in order to maintain our license with them.



2) Supported Housing

A. Strategic Goal: Increasing Supported Housing Capacity

Our SWOT analysis and consultation confirmed the need for additional Supported Housing along the continuum of care.

The high need for supportive housing within the greater Edmonton community will mean that Recovery Acres can better meet the needs of our clients, their families, and the community. While we have the staff and the expertise to provide additional housing to clients in need, we currently lack the necessary capital to purchase additional Supported Housing unit(s) to provide the additional support needed.

Recovery Acres is are currently working to pay off the last loan we took to purchase the last Supported Housing unit. Once this loan is paid off, we can look to determine whether a new loan is feasible to purchase another housing unit.

A. Operational Plan: Increasing Supported Housing Capacity

The main thing preventing Recovery Acres from providing additional Supported Housing beds to the community is the financial costs of acquiring the infrastructure (i.e. additional supported housing units) with more beds to provide.

Acquiring the additional infrastructure and in turn the additional beds we will need to do two things:

  1. Pay off our existing bank loan
    Before Recovery Acres can consider the purchase of new infrastructure we will need to payoff our existing infrastructure loan. This existing loan was taken to purchase the last Supported Housing unit we bought. In order to shorten the time it will take us to pay off this loan, Recovery Acres will seek housing grants from the City of Edmonton, the Province of Alberta, as well as the federal government. We will also do fundraising specifically for the purpose of paying off this loan.
  2. Purchase new, appropriate housing that will provide Supported Housing beds
    Once the existing loan is paid off, we will connect with a realtor to begin the process of finding a new Supported Housing unit, with a focus on at least five (5) additional Supported Housing beds. With our main facility being located in the Highlands community in Edmonton, this additional house will be sought in the same area.



B. Strategic Goal: Safe Post-Pandemic Operation

Recovery Acres will take everything we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic about operating Supported Housing facilities and apply those learnings to our post-pandemic operations in order to provide staff, clients and visitor with a safe environment to work and recovery in.

B. Operational Plan: Safe Post-Pandemic Operation

The following steps will be taken to ensure we have adequate Infection Prevention and Control (IP&C) measures in place to provide staff, clients and visitor a safe place to live and work:

  1. Appropriate and adequate signage will be posted throughout all Supported Housing units. Signage will include information on IP&C measures including proper hand wash and hand-rub techniques, isolation and quarantine where required, proper masking obligations, as well as proper dishwashing techniques.
  2. All Supported Housing units will be monitored for having adequate soap, hand sanitizer and IP&C compliant cleaning product available at all times.
  3. Recovery Acres staff will remind all clients of required IP&C measures at the weekly house meetings.



C. Strategic Goal: Operate on budget

As a contracted agency with limited fundraising income, it is vital that the Recovery Acres Supported Housing Program operates at or below budget each year.

C. Operational Plan: Operate on budget

Recovery Acres will review the Supported Housing expenses and find ways we can decrease our expenditures without sacrificing our clients’ programs and experiences with us. We will be looking at what infrastructure upgrades and repairs the Supported Housing units need to determine where we can decrease expenditure as well as doing a comparison of the service providers we use for plumbing, HVAC, electrical repair and general maintenance to save money wherever possible.

We review our budget and submit our current financial statements to Alberta Health Services as part of the Provincial Mental Health Services Protection Act licence we operate under.