Introducing ORRPA:
A Stronger Voice for Ohio's Recovery Residence Providers
A Stronger Voice for Ohio's Recovery Residence Providers
You shouldn't have to figure out recovery housing alone.
Ohio's recovery housing landscape is changing. New rules and requirements are coming, and providers are being asked to navigate an increasingly complicated system.
ORRPA is a provider focused, provider led association built around the people actually operating recovery housing. We track what's changing, break down what it means in practice, bring providers together to share what is and isn't working, and help make sure provider experience is part of the conversation while standards and policies are being developed, not just after decisions have already been made.
When decisions are being made about recovery housing, providers should not be standing on the sidelines. There is power in numbers. The more organized we are, the harder we are to ignore.
Whether you operate one home or twenty, you bring something to the table—and you should have a seat at it.
Provider Led
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Practical Support
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Connection
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Education
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Provider Voice
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Regulatory Insights
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Provider Led ✳︎ Practical Support ✳︎ Connection ✳︎ Education ✳︎ Provider Voice ✳︎ Regulatory Insights ✳︎
Why I Created ORRPA
Lisa Mertz, JD | Founder
Recovery housing is personal to me.
More than a decade ago, I lived in recovery housing myself. It gave me the structure, accountability, community, and time I needed to build a life in recovery. I have remained sober, and I have never forgotten the role recovery housing played in helping me get here.
Since then, my work has taken me from receiving services to leading them. I have spent years working within Ohio's behavioral health and recovery system, leading programs, navigating regulatory change, securing public funding, developing services, and working through accreditation, certification, and compliance requirements. I earned my Juris Doctor degree, and I currently serve in a leadership role as Vice President of the Ohio Alliance of Recovery Providers (OARP), a statewide organization advocating on issues affecting addiction, recovery, and behavioral health providers.
That combination of lived experience and professional experience has given me a unique view of recovery housing. I know how powerful it can be, and I also know how easily we can lose the very things that make it work.
Providers need to be organized.
Ohio's recovery residence landscape includes many small and independent providers doing extraordinary work with very limited administrative resources. They may operate only a few homes. They do not have government affairs departments, regulatory staff, or compliance teams tracking every proposed rule, legislative change, public hearing, or new requirement.
As a result, providers can be left reacting to decisions instead of helping shape them.
At the same time, decisions made in Columbus can fundamentally affect how recovery housing operates, what it costs, who providers can serve, and whether smaller organizations can remain sustainable. The people who actually operate recovery residences understand the real-world consequences of those decisions, but individual providers speaking separately will never have the same influence as providers speaking together.
Too often, providers are asked to react to standards and requirements after much of the work of developing them has already occurred. ORRPA believes the people responsible for implementing those requirements should be part of the conversation much earlier.
ORRPA is provider focused and provider led. Our priorities come from the providers doing this work every day.
That is why I created the Ohio Recovery Residence Provider Association.
ORRPA is being built to connect providers across Ohio, keep them informed, help them prepare for regulatory change, identify shared concerns, and create an organized provider voice in the policy and regulatory conversations that affect recovery housing.
This is not about opposing oversight or resisting strong standards. Good standards protect residents, providers, and the integrity of recovery housing.
It is about making sure those standards preserve the essence of recovery housing: community, peer support, accountability, accessibility, autonomy, and the opportunity to build a life in recovery.
And it is about making sure the providers responsible for making recovery housing work every day have a meaningful seat at the table when its future is being decided.
We can accomplish more together than any one provider can accomplish alone.
You Belong in the Conversation.
You do not need to operate twenty recovery residences, have a compliance department, hire a lobbyist, or understand every rule coming out of Columbus to have a voice in what happens to recovery housing in Ohio.
If you operate one recovery residence, the decisions being made right now affect you too.
Many of Ohio's recovery residences were built the old-fashioned way: by people in recovery, families, and community members who saw a need and opened a door. They were built around accountability, peer support, community, personal responsibility, and one person in recovery helping another.
ORRPA believes those principles are worth protecting.
But the environment around recovery housing is changing. Whether providers wanted increased regulation or not, certification requirements, state rules, local requirements, and other oversight are increasingly becoming part of operating recovery housing in Ohio.
Ignoring those changes will not make them go away. Understanding them, preparing for them, and having a voice while they are being developed gives providers a much better chance of protecting what matters.
You don't have to figure this out by yourself.
ORRPA is being built so that a small provider can have access to information and resources that would otherwise require significant time, money, or professional assistance.
You don't need to read every proposed rule.
You don't need to understand legislative procedure.
You don't need to know how to write public comments.
You don't need someone on staff watching Columbus every day.
We can do those things together.
When something important happens, ORRPA's job is to help members understand what is happening, what it could mean for their homes, what they may need to do about it, and when there is an opportunity to speak up.
Your experience matters.
A regulation can look perfectly reasonable on paper and create a completely different result inside a real recovery residence.
Providers know that because they live it.
ORRPA will give providers a place to talk openly about what is happening, ask questions without feeling like they should already know the answer, share frustrations, compare experiences, and identify problems other providers are experiencing too.
Sometimes you may need to vent.
Sometimes another provider may already have solved the problem you're dealing with.
And sometimes ten providers saying, “This requirement will create the same unintended consequence in all of our homes,” is exactly the information policymakers need to hear.
Small providers can have a big voice when they organize.
One small recovery residence may not believe it can influence a statewide rule or piece of legislation.
One hundred recovery residence providers representing hundreds of homes and thousands of Ohioans in recovery are much harder to overlook.
That is what ORRPA is intended to build.
What Membership Provides
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KNOW WHAT'S CHANGING
We monitor the rules, legislation, certification requirements, Medicaid developments, hearings, deadlines, and other changes so you don't have to figure out where to look.
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UNDERSTAND WHAT IT REALLY MEANS
ORRPA goes beyond forwarding rules and regulatory updates. We break them down from the provider perspective: what changed, what it means in practice, where providers may encounter problems, what questions remain, and what you should be preparing for.
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HELP SHAPE WHAT COMES NEXT
Providers shouldn't only hear about new requirements after the important decisions have been made. ORRPA brings providers together early, gathers real world experience, identifies unintended consequences, and works to make sure the provider perspective is part of the conversation as standards and policies develop.
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GET HELP GETTING READY
Practical checklists, templates, trainings, compliance tools, and implementation resources designed for recovery residences, including smaller providers without dedicated administrative staff.
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TALK TO PEOPLE WHO GET IT
Monthly provider meetings give members a place to ask questions, compare experiences, share ideas, talk through frustrations, and learn from people doing the same work.
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LEARN WITHOUT SPENDING A FORTUNE
Access education and expertise collectively that would be difficult or expensive for a small provider to obtain independently.
Become a Founding Member
Join ORRPA during our founding membership period and you'll automatically be recognized as a Founding Member.
Founding Members are the providers who helped build ORRPA from the beginning. You'll have an early opportunity to help identify priorities, shape the association's direction, and build the organized provider voice Ohio recovery housing needs.
No separate enrollment required. Choose the membership level that works for your organization below.
Membership That Meets You Where You Are
You don't need a large organization or a large budget to be part of ORRPA.
Membership is offered per organization, not per residence, so providers of every size can stay connected, informed, and involved. Choose the level that works for you now. You can change or cancel your membership at any time.
Cancel anytime • Understand the requirements. Be better prepared. • Includes everything in Community Membership, plus deeper compliance support. ORRPA analyzes significant regulatory and certification requirements, explains what they mean in practice and helps members identify what to review in their own operations. Members also receive readiness checklists, compliance Q&A, and access to periodic workshops and materials.
Cancel anytime • Stay informed. Get connected. Have a voice. • ORRPA monitors Ohio recovery housing rules, legislation and other developments and lets members know what is changing, when it matters and when action may be needed. Members also get monthly provider meetings, a private space to ask questions and talk with other operators, and opportunities to provide input and participate in ORRPA's advocacy.
What ORRPA Is — and What It Isn't
Provider Focused. Provider Led.
ORRPA starts with the provider experience.
We do not certify or evaluate recovery residences. Our role is to support the people operating them. ORRPA helps providers understand an increasingly complex regulatory environment, access practical tools and information, learn from one another, and identify the issues that matter to them.
Most importantly, ORRPA believes providers should help shape the conversations that affect their homes. Our priorities are informed by the people implementing these requirements every day.
ORRPA is not an accrediting or certifying organization. Membership does not constitute certification or accreditation and does not replace any certification, accreditation, licensing, or other requirements that may apply to your organization.
Our role is different: ORRPA supports, connects, informs, and organizes the people operating recovery residences.
Every Provider Member Has a Voice
Your membership level determines the depth of compliance support you receive, not whether your perspective matters. ORRPA's provider positions will be shaped by the providers doing this work every day.
Whether you operate one home or many, your experience matters. Paying for a higher membership level does not give an organization a greater voice in ORRPA's provider positions.
Need More Hands-On Support?
ORRPA provides regulatory information, education, general compliance guidance, provider discussion, and opportunities to work through common issues together.
Individualized work for a specific organization is outside the scope of ORRPA membership. Providers needing assistance with policy and procedure development, document review, certification or accreditation preparation, corrective action, or hands-on implementation can access those services separately through Hope Harbor Solutions.
Frequently Asked Questions
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ORRPA provider membership is for organizations operating recovery residences in Ohio, whether you operate one home or multiple residences.
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ORH serves as Ohio’s NARR affiliate and has an important role in accreditation, standards, training, and technical assistance. ORRPA has a different primary purpose. We are a provider focused, provider led membership association and do not certify or evaluate recovery residences.
ORRPA starts with the experience of the people operating recovery housing. We provide practical information and regulatory analysis, create opportunities for providers to learn from one another, and help providers navigate an increasingly complex environment.
We also believe providers should be involved early in conversations about the standards and requirements they will ultimately be responsible for implementing, rather than only responding after decisions have largely been made.
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No. ORRPA was intentionally created to make statewide information, connection, and provider representation accessible to smaller operators too. Organizations operating a single recovery residence are welcome.
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No. ORRPA membership is open to recovery residence providers regardless of certification or accreditation status. Membership in ORRPA does not constitute or replace any certification, accreditation, licensing, or other requirement that may apply to your organization.
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No. ORRPA does not certify or accredit recovery residences. We are a provider membership association focused on information, education, connection, compliance support, and provider advocacy.
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Both levels include regulatory and legislative updates, important dates and deadlines, monthly provider meetings, member discussion and Q&A, and opportunities to participate in ORRPA's advocacy. Community + Compliance adds deeper regulatory analysis, certification readiness checklists, compliance-focused Q&A, and access to periodic workshops and materials.
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ORRPA provides general information, education, and compliance guidance for members. Individualized work such as policy and procedure development, document review, certification or accreditation preparation, corrective action, and hands-on implementation is available separately through Hope Harbor Solutions.
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Membership is per organization and includes access for up to two users.
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Yes. ORRPA memberships are month-to-month and can be canceled at any time.
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Absolutely. ORRPA is not about requiring providers to agree on everything. It is about making sure providers understand what is happening, have a place to discuss how changes affect recovery housing in practice, and have an organized way to make their experiences and concerns heard.
Questions About ORRPA?
Not sure which membership is right for you, have a question about ORRPA, or want to learn more before joining? Get in touch.