Resident Rights Statement: Best Practices

The resident rights statement is critically important on how your organization will be committed to operating in a safe and ethical manner.  Therefore, it is recommended that you include many diverse people in your organization in the development of the resident rights statement.  This will also help you make sure that the statement is complete, reflects the values of your organization, and is easy to understand.

You can take the following steps to involve stakeholders in the development of your resident rights statement.

• Ask current or past residents of recovery housing programs what they feel the critical rights are in a quality recovery home.
• Ask your community members what values are important and how they expect residents to be treated in your program.
• Create a focus group of individuals to read and consider your statement.
• Ask this group to explain the rights in their own words to ensure understanding and ensure phrasing is appropriate.

After it is written, look at each element and ask yourself, is it clear and easy to understand and does each element support a recovery environment.