Consider the facts for today’s college students:
- Over half a million college students identify as already in recovery from alcohol or drugs.1
- More than 10% of current college students meet the criteria for a moderate to severe substance use disorder. 2
- Nearly half of young adults (18-25) had any mental illness or substance use disorder in the past year, with over 13% having both.3
And yet, it is estimated that less than 5% of universities
offer collegiate recovery programs or other formalized recovery support.4
SAFE Project was founded by parents who lost their son on his fourth day of college, before he attended his first class. Despite spending the previous years pursuing treatment and recovery, an overdose on campus ended his life. Serving students in recovery can be life-preserving and provide an opportunity for significant shifts in the culture of higher education.
Why Recovery Support in College Matters
The lives of traditional college students often center around two things: finding themselves and finding their people. Because of this, facilitating connections among students and supporting academic pursuits are foundational missions of higher education institutions. We see this reflected in student organization support, school spirit for athletics, and orientation programming. For young people in recovery, connection can take on even greater significance. Finding other students who share similar lived experiences is especially important in building a robust recovery network and sustainable support system.5
Many universities are working tirelessly to research, develop, and implement prevention and intervention practices to serve their students and communities. Too often, however, the needs of students in recovery are overlooked. SAFE Project has advised, trained, and collaborated with more than 650 campuses seeking to bridge this gap. These campuses recognize that students, as well as staff, in recovery are valuable members of their communities, but acknowledge that the college experience often lacks adequate support for them. Recovery is an ongoing journey that may require lifelong support, yet most students in recovery receive little or no assistance in sustaining the positive changes they have made – often, the very changes that allow them to pursue–or return to–their education in the first place.
While collegiate culture has traditionally normalized, celebrated, romanticized, and–in some cases–even exacerbated unsafe substance use and harmful mental health behaviors, collegiate recovery programs and supports make higher education accessible for students navigating substance use or mental health disorders. These programs harness the transformative power of mutual support to foster healing, build meaningful connections, increase access to life-saving tools, and create more affirming traditions on campus. A student should never be forced to choose between their recovery and a fully connected and rewarding college experience.
A Transformative Impact
Substance use and mental health challenges can derail a student’s goals and well-being, and in some cases, can claim a student’s life. It is our belief that sustained recovery support is a critical pillar of overall campus health. Every college and university benefits from intentional programming, resources, and infrastructure designed to serve students in or seeking recovery, students impacted by addiction, and students seeking to reshape campus culture related to mental health and substance use.
Collegiate recovery initiatives take different forms–with varying involvement and direction from campus staff, faculty, and resources, and they have expanded largely because of students’ and professionals’ initiative and vision. Many programs are conceived because inspired students or professionals have experienced transformative collegiate recovery support on one campus, moved to another, and started replicating what had been so important to them. Some communities are composed of students whose primary aim is to socialize and share mutual support; other initiatives include committed staff and dedicated spaces.
In 2024, a study of 70 institutionally-supported collegiate recovery programs found that these programs vary widely based on their level of funding and how long they had been offered.6 Despite this variation, universities have also found that students who engage with their recovery initiative maintain higher GPAs, retention rates, and graduation outcomes than their student body average.7-8 With these factors in mind, it can be helpful to guide students and families in choosing a campus with a collegiate recovery initiative and resources that fit their particular needs and goals.
In addition to the interpersonal benefits of supporting individuals in recovery, CRPs are cost-effective investments and, in some cases, cost-saving for their host institutions.9 Not only does collegiate recovery support students already active in their recovery journey, but recovery-focused staff can also advocate for a student who chooses to take a leave of absence for treatment and provide support and community as they return to campus. Additionally, collegiate recovery goes beyond keeping students connected to campus–it actually recruits students.10 In a 2013 mixed-methods survey, 20% of students reported they would not have attended their current university if not for its CRP.11 With these factors in mind, it can be helpful to guide students and families in choosing a campus with a collegiate recovery initiative and resources that fit their particular needs and goals.
“We Don’t Have Those Kinds of Students”
Despite these positive outcomes, advocates for collegiate recovery often encounter stigma12– both explicit and implicit–that limits institutional investment and visibility. A common demonstration of this bias is the claim: “We don’t have those kinds of students here.” However, we know that for every 10,000 students a campus serves, approximately 240 self-identify as being in recovery.13 Among that same population, an estimated 150 students have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, and 68 have sought treatment in the last year.14 If those students are fortunate enough to access treatment they can afford, students will likely return to a campus with no recovery support in place.
Half of the students involved in CRPs report feeling stigmatized by their peers, and over 1 in 5 feel stigmatized by professors because of being in recovery.15
Stigma does not end once a campus acknowledges this reality and begins to develop recovery services. Instead, the additional forms that stigma often takes include:
- Recovery initiatives may be framed as niche services rather than strategies that support retention, student success, and overall well-being.
- Substance use may be viewed solely through a student conduct or compliance lens rather than as a public health concern.
- Students in recovery may be perceived as liabilities, or administrators may worry that investing in recovery support “admits there is a problem” or “sends the wrong message” to parents or donors.
These assumptions discourage students from disclosing their recovery status, seeking help, or believing that they truly belong on campus.
Every institution of higher education is required–and reasonably expected–to provide an educational environment that limits potential harms related to substance use. Students who violate policies are contacted by staff, may receive sanctions, and are often offered short-term interventions or educational programming. But the absence of recovery support can send a clear, even if unintentional, message: If you use, don’t get caught. If you get caught, change quickly. If your change requires ongoing support, you might be out of luck.
Too often, campuses develop recovery initiatives only after tragedy–when the loss of a student begs the question of what can be done to prevent the loss of another. Institutions must move from reactive to proactive, earnestly supporting students in a reality where nearly every individual is touched by addiction, every campus contains members in recovery, and many more students may seek recovery during their time there.
At SAFE Project, our Campuses team works to build recovery cultures that are guided directly by student voices. At the heart of this work are two beliefs: student substance use and addiction reflect unmet needs and desires; and the opposite of addiction is connection.
We provide technical assistance and strategic support to collegiate recovery initiatives nationwide prioritizing trauma-informed, equity-centered, and community-focused policy, procedure, and programming. This approach allows us to be nimble, innovative, and effective–empowering campuses to develop sustainable programming models that benefit individual students, influence campus cultures, and positively impact local communities.
Colleges and universities have a choice. They can contribute meaningfully to healing a nation deeply affected by addiction, or they can continue overlooking the realities students carry with them when they arrive on campus. Campuses are places where people discover who they are and who they want to become. For the more than half a million college students in recovery nationwide, that journey should not mean navigating recovery alone. When campuses invest in recovery support, they help students find their footing, find their people, and build lives that extend far beyond graduation.
Resources & Citations
1 5% according to ACHA-NCHA, with X# of college students in the United States.
2 Pasman, E., et al. (2024). Drug and Alcohol Dependence. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dadr.2024.100279
3 SAMHSA. (2025). 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey-drug-use-and-health/national-releases
4 As of 2026, according to the Association of Recovery in Higher Education, there are between 140 and 180 collegiate recovery programs among the 3,900 colleges and universities in the United States.
5 Laudet, A. B., et al. (2017). Journal of American College Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2015.1117464
6 Vest, N., et al. (2024). Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.24-00207
7 Laudet, A. B., et al. (2017). Journal of American College Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2015.1117464
8 Smith, R. L. (2025). National Longitudinal Collegiate Recovery Study Data Report. https://recovery.vcu.edu/media/rams-in-recovery/Fall24Spring25_CoReStudyDataReport.pdf
9 Castedo de Martell, S., Holleran Steiker, L., Springer, A., Jones, J., Eisenhart, E., & Brown III, H. S. (2024). The cost-effectiveness of collegiate recovery programs. Journal of American College Health, 72(1), 82–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2021.2024206
10 Laudet, A. B., Harris, K., Kimball, T., Winters, K. C., & Moberg, D. P. (2016). In college and in recovery: Reasons for joining a Collegiate Recovery Program. Journal of American College Health, 64(3), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2015.1117464
11 Laudet, A. B., Harris, K., Kimball, T., Winters, K. C., & Moberg, D. P. (2016). In college and in recovery: Reasons for joining a Collegiate Recovery Program. Journal of American college health : J of ACH, 64(3), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2015.1117464
12 Scott, Alison, et al. “Experiences of Students in Recovery on a Rural College Campus.” SAGE Open, vol. 6, no. 4, Oct. 2016, p. 215824401667476, https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016674762. Accessed 11 Dec. 2019.
13 American College Health Association. American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III: Reference Group Executive Summary Fall 2025. Silver Spring, MD: American College Health Association; 2026.
16 Vest, N., Flesaker, M., Timko, C., Humphreys, K., Stein, M. D., Hoatson, T., & Kelly, J. F. (2025). Who participates in collegiate recovery programs? A survey of students in the US and Canada. Journal of American College Health, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2025.2573107
Since 2018, the SAFE Campuses team has impacted over 650 colleges and universities in the mission of collaboratively developing and empowering innovative and sustainable approaches to recovery, harm reduction, prevention, and treatment.
As the higher education-focused portfolio of SAFE Project, the SAFE Campuses initiative hosts the annual Collegiate Recovery Leadership Academy, the SAFE Campuses Summer Series, consulting and training programs, harm reduction programming (such as naloxone distribution), and other customizable solutions tailored to the needs of each college/university.