How To Become A Certified Recovery Coach In South Dakota

There is a growing demand for recovery support services specialists in the USA and around the world. Every year more and more people suffer from mental health and substance use disorders and feel as though all hope is lost.

What Are The Requirements To Receive Recovery Coach Certification In South Dakota?

If you are interested in becoming a recovery coach, peer support specialist, or addiction recovery coach in the state of South Dakota, you have two options available to you.

You can do your recovery coaching training hours at Face It Together, which consists of both in-person and online classes. Otherwise, you can go through Project Recovery. They don’t offer classes themselves, but they will direct you to complete their online program through CASAT.

Minium qualifications

Face It Together requirements:

Be at least 18 years old.
Have a GED, high school diploma, or college transcript.
Have experience with addiction (either yourself or a close family member, partner, or friend). You will need to show that you are healthy and are currently participating or have participated in a wellness program.
Be subject to a variety of reference checks.

Project Recovery requirements:

Be at least 18 years old.
Have a GED, high school diploma, or college transcript.
Complete at least 46 hours worth of recognized peer recovery support specialist training (strongly recommended but not required.)

Application process

To apply for training at Face It Together, you simply need to contact the organization and ask to apply for their training. To apply for training with Project Recovery, you can go to the CASAT website, find the course for recovery coaching, and then apply.

Training

Face It Together training process

The Face It Together training program is quite a long process. It consists of 16 hours of online content, four hours of in-person classes and scenario exercises, and then 20 hours of shadowing another recovery coach.

Some of the core classes you will cover in the training include:

Ethics
Wellness planning
Communication
Self-care
Behavior change
Crisis management

When this part of your training is complete, you will need to complete an exam and score 75% or higher to pass. You will then work as an Addiction Recovery Coach for Face It Together for 90 days while being supervised by the Director of Coaching.

Unfortunately, this training is only available to those who wish to work as recovery coaches at Face It Together.

Project Recovery training

The CASAT program offered by Project Recovery is slightly more straightforward. It’s a free five-day online training course that is 18 hours long and will teach you how to provide recovery support. The course doesn’t really focus on mental health and is mainly about addiction recovery.

There is no examination at the end of the training. However, this is likely due to the fact that it’s strongly recommended you already have peer recovery support experience.

Recovery coach certification, South Dakota

Unfortunately, the state of South Dakota does not have a state-endorsed certification process. Completing either of these two programs will not make you a certified recovery coach, but it will still be possible for you to practice.

It is possible to get certification from an international association, but you will have to present your certificate to the South Dakota Certification Board. In some states, this will be enough for you to become certified. However, states that have state-endorsed certification processes may require you to go through their programs.

Renewal of certification

If you are not certified by the state, then you won’t need to go through the renewal process every year.

However, recovery coaches that work with Face It Together will need to go through continuing education courses on a quarterly basis.

What Job Opportunities Are In The Peer Support Services Sector?

While it is a little more difficult to get certified in the state of South Dakota, there are still a few recovery support service jobs you can do without certification.

Listed below are some of the careers in the recovery coaching industry, as well as their earning potential.

Types of jobs and their earning potential

Certified Peer Specialist – $29,000 to $37,500 per annum
Family Peer Support Specialist – $37,330 per annum
Mental Health Peer Support Specialist – $31,000 to $37,000 per annum
Peer Support Worker – $31,000 to $39,500 per annum
Peer partner – $24,500 to $49,000 per annum
Peer Support – $27,500 to $33,000 per annum
Peer Recovery Specialist – $30,500 to $41,500 per annum
Peer Review Specialist – $40,000 to $100,000 per annum

FAQs

Do recovery coach certificates expire?

Yes, recovery coaches need to renew their certificates every year, or else they will expire. However, renewing your certificate is not as simple as filling in some forms and waiting to receive your new certificate.

In many states, you will need to show proof of your continuing education units. This means you will need to participate in courses over the year, to be able to successfully apply for the renewal of your certificate.

How do recovery coaches and peer support services workers get clients?

People in the recovery support services industry get clients by advertising their services. These practices often find clients through word of mouth, social media advertising, and both personal and professional relationships.

What do recovery coaches do?

Recovery coaches offer peer support services. These services entail providing non-clinical assistance to support long-term recovery from both mental health and substance use disorders.

Final Thoughts

A career in recovery coaching will never be easy, as you will deal with many people at their lowest. However, when things go right, it can be one of the most rewarding industries to be in.

If you are after job satisfaction and have recovered from mental illness or a substance use disorder, then the peer support services industry will be perfect for you.