Closing a Chapter, Honoring a Legacy: NIRCO’s Final Report
As Northern Illinois Recovery Community Organization (NIRCO) prepares to sunset at the end of 2026, we are sharing our final report to honor the people, partnerships, and accomplishments that have shaped our work since November 2019.
For Dr. Mary Roberson, Chief Executive Officer of NIRCO, this closing chapter is deeply personal. In her letter opening the report, she reflects:
“As NIRCO prepares to close its final chapter at the end of 2026, I reflect with deep gratitude on the community we have built together since our founding in November 2019. We began with a belief that recovery is possible for everyone and that people with lived experience must have a voice in shaping the services that support them.”
“This final report honors the individuals and families who entrusted us with their recovery journeys, the peers who turned their experiences into pathways of hope, and the partnerships that made our work possible.”
That belief guided NIRCO’s growth as Lake County’s first peer-led, peer-driven Recovery Community Organization. Through recovery coaching, peer-led groups, overdose prevention education, advocacy, and connections to essential services, NIRCO helped individuals and families find support, build relationships, and move forward in their recovery.
Along the way, NIRCO helped establish important firsts for Lake County:
The first grassroots organization to lead the Lake County Recovery Oriented System of Care Council.
The first Lake County Recovery Community Organization funded through Illinois’ Restore, Reinvest, Renew initiative.
The first community-based organization in Lake County awarded SAMHSA’s Building Communities of Recovery grant.
These milestones helped make possible the everyday work at the heart of NIRCO: supporting people transitioning from jail, treatment, hospitals, or homelessness; providing mentorship and support to justice-impacted adults and youth; creating welcoming recovery meetings; and connecting people with housing, employment, healthcare, and other resources.
The final report brings this work together while recognizing the staff, peers, volunteers, partners, funders, and community members who made it possible. Above all, it honors the individuals and families who trusted NIRCO to walk alongside them.
As Dr. Roberson shares in her letter, NIRCO’s impact lives on in the relationships formed, the voices elevated, and the people who continue to carry recovery forward. We close this chapter with gratitude for everyone who helped build that legacy.
Our Voices. Our Community. Our Recovery.
Read the full final report here:
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