Redwood Recovery Project Inc.

About Redwood Recovery Project Inc.

Redwood Recovery Project Inc. is a sober living operator in Luck, Wisconsin, running certified recovery housing for women in Polk County. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Emily Francis, who directs it, and her husband Brian, both substance use counselors who grew up in the St. Croix River Valley and are raising their family there.

A Nonprofit Recovery Housing Provider in the St. Croix Valley

The organization was built to close a gap its founders could see from inside the field. Both are counselors, both live in Polk County, and their stated reason for starting a nonprofit was the shortage of resources for women in the valley they come from. Housing is the center of the work. Around it the organization runs peer-led support groups, recovery coaching and life skills training, organizes sober social events and community projects, and connects residents into mental health and social services that are thin on the ground in a rural county.

What WASH Certification Means for This Sober Living Operator

Its housing is certified at NARR Level II by the Wisconsin Association of Sober Housing, the state's affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences. Wisconsin compels nothing of the kind, so certification is a decision an operator makes and pays for. It binds the residence to a published code of ethics, to written disclosure of fees and rules before move-in, to a written relapse and discharge policy, and to a complaint process a resident can use without going through the house first. WASH certifies residence by residence, and only a small number of Wisconsin homes carry it. An operator holding it in a rural county has taken on an obligation nobody in this state can force on anyone.

Women's Recovery Homes in a Rural County

The operator houses women only. Single-gender housing in a rural county is a real commitment, because the pool of applicants is smaller and the operator gives up the flexibility to fill an empty bed with whoever turns up. It buys a household written for one population, with shared space, house meetings and rules built for the residents who actually live there and no compromise between two groups.

Where This Polk County Sober Living Operator Works

The service area is rural Polk County and the St. Croix River Valley along the Minnesota border. Balsam Lake is the county seat, St. Croix Falls and Amery hold much of the county's health care, and the metro area southwest across the state line is where a large share of the region's treatment capacity sits. That geography is the operator's argument for existing. A woman who finishes treatment in Minnesota, or in a Wisconsin facility hours from home, can come back to her own county instead of choosing between the place she is from and the housing she needs.

Applying to This Wisconsin Sober Living Operator

Applications go through the organization. Certification means fees and house rules must be disclosed in writing before anyone signs, so an applicant should ask for that document first. The remaining questions are about the operator: how long it has housed women in Polk County, whether it takes referrals from treatment programs, the county and the courts, how a deposit is handled at move-out, and how a complaint moves past the house to the operator and then to the certifying body. A certified Wisconsin operator should have every one of those answers ready.