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🏡 Operations Domain: Overview

This domain includes the core activities performed to support recovery homes, focused on delivering structured support to House Mentors and the recovery community in the home.

📁 Return to 🏡 Operations Category

➡️ Next article: 📋 Chartered Home Standards

Article Table of Contents

  1. 🏡 Operations Domain: Introduction
  2. 📋 Chartered Home Standards
  3. 👤 Guests
  4. 👨‍👦‍👦 House Mentorship
  5. 🏡 Recovery Home Operations

Related Articles

 

 

🏡 Operations Domain: Introduction

Learn about the Operations Domain 

The Purpose of the Operations Domain

The Operations Domain is the backbone of maintaining the daily functions, safety, and compliance of a recovery residence. It encompasses all aspects related to the administration, management, and oversight of sober living homes, ensuring that they run smoothly, meet regulatory standards, and provide a supportive environment for guests. The Operations Domain includes critical processes such as guest intake, House Mentor training, emergency procedures, certification, and ongoing maintenance. By focusing on these areas, the Operations Domain upholds the quality and effectiveness of recovery residences, contributing to the overall success of the program and the well-being of residents.

Key Functions of the Operations Domain:

  • Guest Management: Facilitates guest intake, applications, onboarding, and ensures consistent support through House Mentor oversight.
  • Safety and Compliance: Implements emergency procedures, prepares exit plans, and ensures compliance with local, state, and national regulations.
  • Guest Payments & Funding Sources: Collecting and tracking guest payments, including payments from funding sources.
  • House Mentor Training and Support: Provides essential training for House Mentors, ensuring they are equipped to lead and maintain a stable and supportive environment.
  • Certification and Standards: Oversees the certification process to meet NARR standards, enhancing the home’s reputation and eligibility for grants.

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📋 Chartered Home Standards

Chartered Home Standards help ensure each VSL recovery home functions properly

Summary of Chartered Home Standards 

The Chartered Home Standards establish a comprehensive framework that all Chartered Operators must adhere to, ensuring consistency, safety, and quality across all VSL homes. These standards encompass various domains, including general home operations, facility maintenance, legal compliance, certification, health and safety, guest policies, and more. Adherence to these standards is not only required under all Charter Agreements but is also critical to maintaining the integrity and success of VSL recovery residences. Regular review and compliance with these standards are essential for operators to continue delivering safe and supportive environments for guests.

Key Sections of the Standards:

  • General Home Standards: Cover new home establishment, facility standards, and leased or owned home requirements, including maintenance, insurance, and legal documentation.
  • Home Certification Standards: Emphasize adherence to NARR 3.0 standards and detail the certification process, especially for states with robust certification requirements.
  • Home Safety, Health, and Sanitation: Outline standards for property safety, cleanliness, pest control, and compliance with local health codes.
  • Guest Policies & Procedures: Include guidelines for reasonable accommodation, medication policies, and the importance of non-discrimination and proper guest management.
  • Closing a Chartered Home: Detail the process for responsibly closing a home, whether by operator decision or VSL mandate, ensuring a smooth transition or proper shutdown.

These standards form the backbone of operational excellence and are designed to uphold the quality, safety, and effectiveness of VSL’s sober living homes.

Reference: 📋Chartered Home Standards

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👤 Guests

Learn about recovery home guests, file management, and best practices

📄 Guest Applications & Intake

The intake and guest application process is critical to ensuring a smooth and successful onboarding experience for new residents at VSL homes. This structured process includes reviewing applications, conducting phone screenings, and making approval decisions, all while maintaining clear communication and detailed records. Operators can either manage this process themselves or opt for VSL’s Intake Services for added support. Key Takeaways:

  • What are the key acceptance criteria for guest applications?
  • What are the stages an application goes through during the intake process?
  • How is the application management process handled, and what are the steps involved?
  • What are the roles and responsibilities of Operators and Intake Coordinators during the intake process?
  • How can Operators and House Mentors ensure a seamless transition for new guests moving into a VSL home?

Reference: 📄 Guest Applications & Intake

🎉 Guest Orientation

Guest orientation is a critical process that ensures new residents are welcomed and properly integrated into their VSL recovery home. This process involves verifying the resident's identity, completing necessary documentation, administering screenings, and familiarizing the guest with house policies and procedures. Properly conducted orientations help maintain compliance and set a positive tone for the resident's stay. Key Takeaways:

  • What steps are involved in conducting a new guest orientation?
  • How do you verify a guest's identity and complete the Resident Agreement?
  • What is the process for administering screenings and collecting payments?
  • What essential information and policies should be reviewed with the guest during orientation?
  • What are the key administrative duties required after a guest orientation is complete?

 Reference: 🎉 Guest Orientation

📁 Maintain Guest Files and Documentation

Operators and their House Mentors are responsible for effectively using Buildium to manage guest information, payments, and property-related tasks. This includes activating their account, navigating the software on both desktop and mobile, and ensuring accurate record-keeping. Proper use of Buildium is essential for maintaining compliance, accessing important documents, and efficiently managing guest interactions and finances. Key Takeaways:

  • How do you access and view guest files in Buildium?
  • What is the process for verifying and updating guest information in Buildium's "Resident Center"?
  • What steps are involved in recording a guest move-in after orientation?
  • How do you move a current guest into a different bed within the same property?
  • What is the correct procedure for recording a guest move-out after discharge?

Reference: 📁 Guest Files and Documentation: Buildium

💲 Manage Guest Payment Ledgers

 Operators are responsible for managing guest lease ledgers in Buildium to ensure accurate financial records. This includes tracking payments, adding or modifying charges, and adjusting payment cycles. Proper management of lease ledgers is crucial for maintaining up-to-date balances, ensuring compliance with guest agreements, and supporting efficient financial operations. Key Takeaways:

  • How do you access and review a guest’s lease ledger in Buildium?
  • What steps are involved in recording a guest rent payment, both on desktop and mobile?
  • How can you add, modify, or delete charges and credits in a guest’s lease ledger?
  • What options are available for managing and adjusting guest rent payment cycles?
  • How do you configure ePay settings and handle electronic payment processing fees for guests?

Reference: 💲 Manage Guest Payment Ledgers in Buildium

💨 Guest Departure (discharge) 

The guest departure process involves ensuring a smooth and respectful transition for residents who are being discharged from a VSL recovery home. This process includes providing appropriate notice, assisting with relocation when possible, securing resident belongings, and documenting the departure in Buildium. The goal is to maintain the safety and integrity of the home while treating the departing guest fairly and with dignity. Key Takeaways:

  • What is the timeline for a guest’s departure following discharge?
  • How should you notify the guest and other parties about a discharge?
  • What assistance can be offered to a guest being discharged, and what are the safety considerations?
  • How should a guest’s belongings be managed and hazardous items handled after they leave?
  • What steps are necessary to document the discharge in Buildium and secure the building?

 Reference: 💨 Guest Departure (discharge)

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👨‍👦‍👦 House Mentorship

Learn about how House Mentors support the recovery home environment

👨‍👦‍👦 House Mentorship Overview

House Mentors play a crucial role in the operation and success of VSL sober living homes. They are responsible for maintaining a safe, supportive, and structured environment for guests, ensuring that house rules are enforced, and providing leadership and guidance. House Mentors also handle day-to-day tasks like conducting drug screens, leading house meetings, and supporting guests in their recovery journeys. This position requires strong leadership skills, commitment to personal recovery, and the ability to manage interpersonal relationships effectively.

  • What are the core responsibilities of a House Mentor in a VSL sober living home?
  • How are House Mentors compensated, and what living arrangements are available to them?
  • What qualifications and expectations are required for someone to become a House Mentor?
  • How does the role of a House Mentor impact the overall recovery community within a sober living home?
  • What steps should be taken in the event of a House Mentor's departure?

Reference: 👨‍👦‍👦 House Mentorship Overview

🔎 House Mentor Search & Evaluation

Selecting the right House Mentor is essential for maintaining a stable and supportive environment in VSL sober living homes. When possible, House Mentors should be chosen from the pool of current guests, as they are already familiar with the community and expectations. However, if an internal candidate is not available, an outside search may be necessary, focusing on networking within the recovery community. Candidates undergo a thorough evaluation process, including an interview and training, to ensure they are equipped to fulfill the role effectively.

  • Why is it preferable to select House Mentors from the pool of current guests?
  • What steps should be taken if a suitable House Mentor cannot be found among current guests?
  • How is the House Mentor search and evaluation process conducted?
  • What are the key areas of focus during a House Mentor interview?
  • What qualifications and stability factors are important when selecting a House Mentor candidate?

Reference: 🔎 House Mentor Search & Evaluation

🎓 House Mentor Training

House Mentor training is essential for preparing new House Mentors to effectively manage and support sober living homes. This comprehensive training process, which includes both self-guided and practical components, ensures that House Mentors are well-versed in their responsibilities, equipped with the necessary skills, and aligned with Vanderburgh House standards. Whether conducted by the Operator or Vanderburgh House staff, this training must be completed and verified before a House Mentor assumes their role.

  • What is the purpose of House Mentor training, and why is it required before assuming the role?
  • How does the House Mentor training process unfold, from application to verification?
  • What are the responsibilities of Operators and Support Managers in the House Mentor training process?
  • What is the importance of both self-guided and practical training in preparing House Mentors?
  • What must be completed during the training verification stage before a House Mentor is fully authorized?

Reference: 🎓 House Mentor Training

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🏡 Recovery Home Operations

Learn about the operation of a recovery home itself 

🚨 Emergency Procedures

In the event of an emergency at a VSL sober living home, the safety of guests and staff is the top priority. This article outlines the procedures to follow during various emergencies, including fires, natural disasters, violent incidents, power outages, overdoses, and even the unfortunate event of a guest's death. Proper training in CPR, first aid, and the use of Narcan is essential for all House Mentors and Operators to ensure they can respond effectively in crisis situations.

  • What should be the immediate response in the event of a serious emergency at the home?
  • How should you handle situations involving fire, natural disasters, or violent threats?
  • What are the steps to take during a power, water, or heat outage, and how should you communicate with guests?
  • How do you recognize and respond to an opioid overdose, and what is the importance of having Narcan readily available?
  • What procedures should be followed if a guest passes away in the home?

Reference: 🚨 Emergency Procedures

☑️ NARR-Affiliate Certification

The National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) is a leading organization that sets the standard for high-quality recovery housing across the United States. By categorizing recovery residences into four levels, NARR ensures a continuum of care that ranges from peer-run homes to service provider residences with clinical support. Certification through NARR or its affiliates validates a residence's commitment to excellence and opens doors to various benefits, including grants and enhanced reputation. This article outlines the certification process, including necessary steps, paperwork, and the benefits of achieving certification.

  • What are the four NARR levels of recovery residences, and how do they differ?
  • What are the key steps in the certification process for a recovery residence?
  • What documents and preparations are required for NARR certification?
  • How does certification benefit a recovery residence, including industry recognition and access to grants?
  • Where can you find state-specific information and resources for certification? 

Reference: ☑️ NARR-Affiliate

📐 Floor Plans, Emergency Exit Plans, and Room Numbering

Creating accurate and detailed floor plans, emergency exit plans, and standardized room numbering are essential steps in ensuring the safety and organization of VSL sober living homes. Floor plans are crucial for developing bed plans, meeting certification requirements, and preparing emergency exit plans. Room numbering provides clarity for residents and emergency services, while well-prepared exit plans are vital for guiding safe evacuations in the event of an emergency.

  • How can you create a detailed floor plan for a recovery home using tools like Cubi.Casa?
  • What are the standards for numbering rooms and beds in VSL residences?
  • What steps are required to prepare an emergency exit plan, and why is it important?
  • How do you add emergency details to a floor plan using software like Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Paint?
  • Where should emergency exit plans be posted within the residence for optimal safety?

Reference:📐 Floor Plans, Emergency Exit Plans, and Room Numbering

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End of article

 

OPERATIONS WORKING NOTES (in the process of getting this content organized)

 

Home Visit

The Operator is responsible for visiting each house on a weekly basis (typically on Monday) to collect rent and check on the house. This weekly home visit should follow the items in the Weekly Home Inspection Form. It is best to meet with the House Mentor if possible, but the House Mentor can be contacted by telephone if they are not available when you go to the house. On each weekly visit, the Operator must complete each of the below tasks.

 

Rent Collection

Record Collected Rent

 

 Unpaid Rent
 

✔️ Manage Unpaid Rent

Now that you have logged all of the paid rents, speak with your House Mentor about any residents who are behind in their payments. You can always look in Buildium for a list of unpaid residents by visiting Rentals > Outstanding Balances from the Buildium dashboard.

 

The expectations of residents are contained in the Resident Handbook. These resources should be reviewed regularly with residents, especially if standards are not being met. The House Mentor should collect rent from residents on Fridays at 5pm, when it is due. The House Mentor and the Resident must record the collected rent on a Rent Collection Sheet and each initial the appropriate box.

 

 

House Mentor Check-In

 

 

Welfare Check

 

  • Check in with your House Mentor

 

 

We ask each of our Operators to review their administrative Tasks and schedules weekly to assure that all items have been completed.

 

 

Buildium

 

Look through your resident files on Buildium to assure that the following items have been completed.

 

Occupancy

 

  • Check your occupancy

  • Are your goals being met?

 

 

 

Accounting

 

Bills

 

  • Are you recording all of your bills?

  • Are you recording bills as "paid" when they are paid?

  • Are any bills coming due soon?

  • Are any bills past due?

 

Bank Activity

 

 

 

 

 

We need to greatly simplify this section. How many training modules do we need?

During Operations Training you will begin to cover the daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities of Operating a Sober Home. This will include both administrative and hands-on duties, as well as some initial accounting details.

This article details Operations training. The module will cover the basics of Buildium (Buildium 101) and some basics for various common situations and common practices. Operations training will not end with this module, however. This is an ongoing task that will continue well into your Operation of your new home as situations arise.

 

Administrative Duties

 

Communication

 

The ways that we communicate with our Residents and Outreach prospects are important. Our choice of words can have a major impact on people's perceptions of us as Operators and on our business and Vanderburgh House as a whole.

While this is true, using the proper terminology becomes important in our administrative documentation as well. These documents can be thought of as our internal thoughts and private, but there are two main reasons why we should use the proper and informed terminology in this documentation:

  1. Private thoughts and conversation is a place where we can practice using this terminology and encode it as the standard language that we use and,

  2. These documents could be called into question in more acute circumstances if anything was ever legally called into question. While this is unlikely, it is important to be mindful of this possibility.

Please review 📋 Communication, Choice of Words, Terminology and become familiar with this informed terminology.

Weekly Duties

 

Each week there will be a number of items that you will need to complete in order to maintain structure in your business and your new Sober Home. You can read more about these duties in the 📅 Weekly Checklist article.

  1. Home visit - Maintaining a presence at the home will be important for the Residents.

  2. Rent Collection - Rent will need to be collected each week.

  3. House Manager Check-in - Assure that responsibilities are being met and check to see if your House Manager requires your support.

  4. Buildium - Checking files, bills, and your home's status on Buildium is an important part of your week.

  5. Accounting - Ensure that bills are paid and your account is up to date.

  6. Teams - Checking your files, calendar, messages, and tasks on Teams will help keep you in touch with Vanderburgh House.

  7. HubSpot - assuring recording of Outreach activities at least once per week in HubSpot.

Structure is important for anyone and it will most certainly help you maintain and grow your sober home, both from a business and resident relations standpoint. You will be trained on a framework of structure by your trainer and should work from there to find a way that works for you.

Monthly Duties

 

There are also regularly monthly duties that will maintain structure and organization for you business.

  1. Paying Vanderburgh House & Vanderburgh Communities Invoices - This can be done through this web portal.

  2. Account Reconciliation - This should be done at the beginning of each month. More will be covered about this during your accounting training and it can be read about in 🧩 Accounting Training | 3 of 3 | Accounting Review.

  3. Review Monthly Report - This is prepared for you by your Operations Manager every month. You can review this file before meeting with the Operations Manager by going to your Team > General > Files and opening the Excel workbook that includes the name Operator Reports. Read more in 🗓️ Review Monthly Report.

  4. Home Inspection - You should regularly inspect your home to ensure that any maintenance issues are found and addressed in a timely manner.

You can view the Recommended Schedule in the section 📈 Operator Goals for other details related to weekly and monthly duties.

Drug Screens

 

You can order drug screens from Lochness Medical. These are an inexpensive way to obtain drug screens. More information can be found about Lochness and the process of ordering in ✔️ Order Drug Screens.

 

 

Unpaid Rent

 

Unfortunately there are situations where a Resident does not pay their rent. This can happen for any number of reasons. You can discuss what to do in these situations with your trainer and read more about this in ✔️ Manage Unpaid Rent.

Part of the structure of your Sober Home will be these policies and procedures and how you enforce them in your home. As structured sober living environments, our goal is to provide a space where Residents can learn to follow rules and, ideally, create structure in their own lives based upon what they see within our homes. Read our 🧡 Mission & Vision to try and find a clearer understanding of what this might mean.

 

Recommended: Unpaid Rent Policy

A guest cannot be further behind than two weeks rent. After the first week of not receiving payment the Operator or Mentor should have a conversation with the individual to find out why they are having issues making payment. A supplemental agreement should be made then to ensure that payments will be made.

Recommended: Collections Policy

  • Let HMs manage collections for up to one week
  • Make sure HMs are adding notes for guests who have not paid even by a day or two!
  • After one week, the Operator must get involved
  • Document on a supplemental agreement
  • Scan & save in Buildium