One Tuesday afternoon, the alumni coordinator scrolls a personal phone and texts 30 alumni about Thursday's cookout, one at a time. The 31st, who finished in August, never hears about it. At many small centers there's no coordinator at all. “We do not have a dedicated alumni coordinator,” one counselor wrote on r/DrugCounselors, so the program belongs to whoever remembers.
An addiction treatment alumni program doesn't need a big budget. It needs one owner, consent in writing, a calendar of messages, one standing meeting and a private group. The sections below take each piece in turn.
What an alumni program is
An alumni program keeps your center in touch with people after they finish care, and keeps them in touch with each other. Put simply, it's four things: milestone texts, a regular meeting, a few events a year, and a private group where alumni talk.
It's open to everyone who finished and opted in, at any level of care. Families usually have their own track through the family program.
Aftercare and alumni are different jobs
Aftercare, or continuing care, is the plan a client and clinicians agree on before discharge. It might mean IOP after residential, sessions with an outside therapist or a room in sober living. The clinical director owns it. It stays in your EMR.
The alumni program is community, and the alumni coordinator owns it. It runs for years, long after aftercare ends. Keep the two apart. Alumni messages never carry anything about anyone's care.
Who owns it
Put one person's name on the program, with set hours. At a 24-bed center that can be four to six hours a week from a peer support worker, an alum on staff or one of your admissions coordinators. Without a name, the texts stop by spring.
Plan the hours: one for texts and calls, two for the weekly meeting, and the rest for events and the monthly newsletter.
Owners sometimes doubt the hours. “The vibe I get is someone up the chain does not think this is a good use of resources,” another counselor wrote in the same forum. The case for it is word of mouth. “The individuals who come to your treatment centers, who receive your services, are your biggest spokespeople,” Robert D'Annibale of Crossroads told Behavioral Health Business in 2025.
Give the owner a half page each month, using the five numbers in the last section.
Get consent first
Get consent in writing before the first text, ideally at discharge. Give alumni messages their own box, apart from care messages and from marketing. Name each kind of message on the form: milestone texts, meeting reminders, event invites, newsletters and review requests.
Two rules sit behind this. Under the federal Part 2 rule, even confirming to someone else that a person was a client is a disclosure. And the TCPA requires express written consent for marketing texts. Ask counsel to approve the consent wording before anyone signs it, and make leaving easy: a STOP reply ends the texts.
A calendar of messages
Milestone texts are timed from each person's discharge date. Here is a calendar a small center can keep:
| When | What goes out | Who sends it |
|---|---|---|
| Discharge day | Welcome to the alumni group, the app link and the next meeting date | Alumni coordinator |
| Day 7 | A short check-in text | Coordinator |
| Day 30 | Milestone text with the next meeting | Set from the discharge date |
| Day 60 | Milestone text | Set from the discharge date |
| Day 90 | Milestone text, then a call | Text first, then the coordinator |
| Six months | An event invite | Coordinator |
| One year | Milestone text and an invite to the year's big event | Set from the discharge date |
| Each month | A newsletter with meeting and event dates | Coordinator |
Keep each text neutral. A lock screen shows the first line, so leave out rehab, detox and treatment words and the center's full name. Sign with your center's initials instead. A 30-day text can be as simple as: “Hi [first name], it's Rae at BRC. Thinking of you today. Tuesday group is at 6:30; you're always welcome.”
Let each alum choose what the milestone means. The text doesn't count days out loud or use words like “sober”.
Meetings people come back to
Pick one night and keep it. A weekly alumni group meets in the same room at the same time, with a video link for people who moved away. Alumni lead it; the coordinator opens the room and keeps the RSVP list.
Add four to six events a year: a summer cookout, a holiday dinner, a family day, a ballgame. Send each invite by text two weeks ahead and again the day before. RSVPs tell you how much food to buy and who you haven't seen in a while.
Ask alumni who reach one year whether they'd speak at a house meeting for the clients in care. Many say yes, and a short talk from someone who sat in those chairs carries weight. Families can join the alumni group once a quarter, for a dinner or a family day, so loved ones see the community too.
A group that stays in touch
Between meetings, alumni need somewhere private to talk. A group chat on personal phones breaks the first time someone changes numbers. A private, invite-only group works better, moderated by the coordinator.
Write three rules and post them: what you share is your own; never post about anyone else; staff never post about anyone's care. In RehabSignal, the group lives in an alumni app in your center's own name, on iPhone and Android. Events and RSVPs sit right beside it.
Check-ins, and who answers them
A short check-in text, weekly at first and then monthly, shows the coordinator which alumni stopped replying. One counselor described the job as “Having an advocate that is able to call, check in with former clients and see how they are doing.”
Have your clinical director okay the questions and the plan for a worrying answer. When someone doesn't reply twice, the coordinator calls. Keep the check-in about how someone is doing, never about their care.
Alumni who send a friend
Alumni often send friends and family your way. Make it easy: hand them a short form link along with your admissions number, and mark those inquiries with the source “alumni”.
Thank them warmly, by text or in person. Never give a reward, discount, gift card or event perk for a referral; EKRA and state brokering laws reach that. Our post on what a center may pay for explains why.
What to count each month
Five numbers on one half page are enough for the owner:
- Alumni who opted in, and how many joined this month.
- Replies to milestone and check-in texts.
- People at the weekly meeting, on average.
- RSVPs and turnout for the last event.
- Inquiries with the source “alumni”.
These numbers show the program's reach. What happens in each person's recovery stays theirs. If you're hiring for the role, our page for alumni coordinators shows how the work runs day to day.
RehabSignal
RehabSignal writes for the people who run US treatment centers: owners, admissions directors, BD reps and alumni coordinators. For this post we read coordinators' own forum threads and the federal Part 2 rule.
