There’s nothing more gratifying to sober living home providers than seeing residents get better. Those transformations, in and of themselves, are part of what makes this work so meaningful.
Happy alumni means stronger, healthier communities.
But did you know that happy, successful alumni can also mean a stronger, healthier business for you?
Alumni recovery success is powerful stuff. It’s important to harness that energy and leverage it to fill more beds at your sober living home.
Today, we’ll look at how to best use the power of alumni recovery success to supercharge your lead-to-resident pipeline.
The Power of Happy Sober Living Alumni
Everyone loves a success story. Humans are drawn to “makeover” shows and rags-to-riches fairy tales. The story of addiction recovery fits nicely with these universal archetypes that speak to our need for redemption, hope, and metamorphosis.
The power of happy alumni works in several ways to boost business at your sober living center.
Here are a few of them:
Community members hear about your alumni’s success and remember your center’s name when they encounter another person looking for help with SUD. This could be a referring physician, a clergyperson, a social worker, a community leader, or even a teacher. They’ve come to associate your business name with recovery and they recommend your center to the next person they encounter who is seeking recovery because they’ve seen the success your sober living home produces first-hand.
Your alumni are an active part of the larger recovery community. They may even act as a mentor in a 12-step program. They recall their time at your sober living home fondly.. They recommend your sober living home to their mentees and other community members.
Your alumni experience relapse as a natural part of their disease pattern. They remember the success they had at your home the last time they lived there and they appreciate the frequent check-ins they’ve received from some of their favorite staff members since graduation. Because of your program’s robust alumni support program, it’s easy for your alum to connect with members of your community to discuss their situation. They decide to re-enroll themselves in treatment to get back on track with their recovery and plan on applying for residency at your sober living home when treatment is complete.
Give Your Sober Living Alumni the Resources They Need to Be Successful
These alumni scenarios will happen “naturally” a lot of the time but there are things you can do to make sure they happen—and frequently.
The first step is to ensure that your alumni are successful upon move-out. There will always be a high percentage of relapse in people who suffer from SUD. That’s the nature of the disease. But there are things you can do to support alumni through their disease—even in the relapse stage.
Consider:
Reviewing their discharge plan. Nearly every addiction treatment center will develop a discharge plan with their patients. Go over your resident’s plan with them. Make sure they’re following the plan in its entirety before they consider moving out.
Frequent phone and/or video check-ins with alumni. Once-a-year is the bare minimum. Consider having current residents do these calls as an act of service.
Make it easy to re-apply for residency. Don’t make your alumni fill out all of their intake paperwork again. Use a sober living home software like ours at the Sober Living App that gives residents and alumni 24/7 access to their resident portal, where they can view their discharge plan, treatment goals, and community contacts. With the Sober Living App,, alumni can reach out to staff right from the portal and pick up where they left off during their last treatment episode.
Effective Addiction Treatment Outcomes Tracking
Many sober living home operators also run addiction treatment centers. The following strategy is for those who own both.
You can’t advertise your addiction treatment center’s stellar outcomes data without effective outcomes tracking. BehaveHealth’s software solution for addiction treatment providers will soon automatically compile outcome data using clinical research measures, complete with benchmark data to help contextualize your treatment center’s results.
Good tracking of outcomes means that you can advertise your alumni success to potential residents and make your sober living home’s effectiveness known in the community.
Give Your Sober Living Home Alums Something to Celebrate
Celebrations are huge opportunities for your sober living home to get out in front of the community.
If you own an addiction treatment center in addition to a sober living home, make graduation from your program a big deal. Hold a ceremony. Set up a branded photo booth for patients to take pictures of themselves individually that they can choose to post on social media if they wish. (Remember: Group photos on social media and public graduation ceremonies are a HIPAA no-go.)
Reach out to alumni on big days. Birthdays (actual birthday or recovery birthdays), meaningful anniversaries, or graduation anniversaries are good bets. Difficult and/or triggering holidays are another opportunity to connect with alumni for check-ins. Consider asking alumni during the if there are special days that they might want or need a check-in around.
Finally, host reunions for alumni to reconnect with the friends they made during early recovery at your sober living home.
Each of these celebration interactions gives your alumni another reason to talk about your sober living home to others. The more your alumni mention your home, especially in connection with positive events, the better.
Choose a Software Solution that Serves Residents—and Alumni
At the Sober Living App, we specialize in easy-to-use, comprehensive software for sober living home operators. We understand the power that alumni have in driving successful recovery communities like yours. Why not give our all-in-one solution a try today? Claim your free trial now.