Minot Area Recovery Community Organization CI Report – Interim

What has been most instrumental to your progress?

While COVID made everything difficult, we focused a lot on the Public Education part of our work plan. This started, pre-COVID by hosting a public viewing of the Moving Anonymous People, talking about ending the shame that comes with addiction and promoting the importance of thriving in recovery. Following the film, we had a panel consisting of people in recovery, law enforcement, health care providers, and other community leaders. We had over 100 people attend.

Once COVID hit, we started having community conversations by zoom around issues that affect people in recovery. This includes having Judge Ashley Beal talk about the Criminal Justice System, Officer Aaron Moss talk about the myths and facts of law enforcement and addiction, the First Lady of North Dakota talked about her recovery story and gave an update on North Dakota state issues. We also had speakers about housing, employment, AA and NA, Rep. Shannon Roers-Jones about recovery-related legislation, and much more. Altogether, well over 200 people attended at least one of our events. These events allowed us to increase the publics knowledge around recovery, but also to help bring awareness to our issues with addiction.

Key lessons learned

The current board of directors of was handed this project about 13 months after it was originally given to the City of Minot, and none of the people involved with it were part of the original proposal. In many ways, the way things were done and handed to us did not allow for the organization and mission to develop organically. We had to build a board, build organizational infrastructure, all while having a community that was looking at us as if we are not doing anything.

Perhaps another way to say that is to state that no matter how much we do, it never seems to be enough. We also have struggled because we have applied for our 501c3 almost three years ago, but we have yet to have it approved by the IRS. Our hope has always been to build towards that point, and then when we are an official nonprofit, be able to hire a full-time staff and be able to operate correctly. The board also struggled with understanding the role of the board and staff in the middle of a pandemic. In May, the board did vote to move on from our paid staff, and they will be working on figuring out what to do next.

Reflections on inclusive, collaborative or resourceful problem-solving

We strive very hard to be collaborative. We want to bring people who need recovery, people in recovery, law enforcement, health professions, housing, employers, and many more to the table and help to share information for the community. It is very important we do not endorse anyone’s answer or option, but rather promote all fo them and advocate for more options.

Other key elements of Community Innovation

I cannot think of any.

Understanding the problem

Again, COVID s stunted our growth. While we have been able to do many things, it is hard to create relationships and systems change over zoom.

If you could do it all over again…

Form a nonprofit board even before the grant is submitted, and get that board to agree on whatever goes into the grant. It should not be done by a branch of city government, and then handed off to another group of people to run it. More effort should have been spent in the beginning on developing a real ad shared strategic advantage.