An “outside in” model of recovery capital growth: building personal and social recovery capital from community resources

Abstract

Recovery capital has been defined as the breadth and depth of internal and external resources available to individuals to support their recovery journey. It is seen as a strengths-based approach consisting of dynamic growth across three domains – personal, social and community – that has provided a model for the quantification of recovery growth. In this paper we advance, first, a theory of recovery growth as ‘outside-in’ based on a social ecological approach where access to community resources creates a cascade for building personal and social capital. Second, we argue that this cascade is going to be particularly important for individuals with low (or negative) levels of baseline personal/family and social capital and high levels of problem severity, complexity and chronicity. Third, we illustrate this conceptual framework for how this happens, using the example of Inclusive Recovery Cities to demonstrate not only how this approach can create the conditions for individuals to grow their recovery capital but that this in turn contributes to overall community wellbeing through creating a model of ‘reciprocal altruism’ and building collective efficacy across communities and diverse cultural contexts. The paper concludes with suggestions for how this model can be adequately tested and what it might contribute to a socioecological approach.

Topics & Concepts