The Complete RCO National Standards Program brings the full Standards of Excellence learning series together into a single, continuous course. It carries learners from first principles through applied implementation and on to sustained evaluation and continuous quality improvement.

Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) play a critical role in advancing long-term recovery by centering lived experience, peer leadership, and community accountability. The National Standards of Excellence provide a shared framework to ensure RCOs remain authentic, inclusive, ethical, and effective across diverse communities.

Program Structure

• Module 1 – Foundations of Excellence: What the National Standards are, why they matter, and how they translate into real-world RCO practice—from governance and programs to ethics and recovery-friendly language.
• Module 2 – Advancing Excellence: Moving from understanding what the standards are to how they are implemented. Learners assess alignment, identify gaps, and develop realistic, actionable strategies grounded in SMART goals and shared accountability.
• Module 3 – Mastering Excellence: How organizations sustain excellence through participatory evaluation, logic models, and continuous quality improvement—treating evaluation as an ongoing process rather than a final judgment.

What You Will Be Able to Do

• Describe the governance, program, and accountability standards that define an RCO.
• Assess your organization’s alignment with each standard and identify practical gaps.
• Translate priorities into SMART goals with clear ownership and timelines.
• Apply participatory evaluation across process, implementation, and outcomes.
• Build and use a logic model, and run PDSA cycles for continuous quality improvement.

The program begins with a single, ungraded pre-test that establishes your baseline understanding across all three modules. No prior evaluation expertise is required.