Recovery Resource Council – Growing Efforts to Reach Youth and Veterans

Founded nearly 80 years ago in Dallas by members of the business community and Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery Resource Council began as a resource for families affected by alcoholism. Today, it is a $13 million Joint Commission-accredited nonprofit offering outpatient addiction treatment, referrals to inpatient care, master’s-level therapy for veterans and their families, housing services, and school-based prevention programming.

The Council began serving veterans in 2023 with $125,000 in support from Lockheed Martin and United Way of Tarrant County. Today, our Veterans Services have grown to $4.5 million, providing both therapy and housing support—funded through a combination of donations, foundation grants, and government contracts.

Today, it serves more than 65,000 people in 20 North Texas counties after opening a Denton office in 2016 and merging the Fort Worth and Dallas councils in 2018. A new office just east of downtown Fort Worth is being built to replace the previous site next door. 

“We are a provider of referral and warm hand off so that you can get yourself or your spouse or your kid where they need to go by just making a phone call,” said Eric Niedermayer, the agency’s Chief Executive Officer since 2002. “You don’t have to be medically indigent to call us. If you call us, we can find you treatment whatever your insurance capacity. Sometimes you just need someone to start the process.”

Recovery Resource Council specializes in connecting people who don’t have insurance or are unable to pay with agencies that can help. 

“We are the front door for medical treatment for the medically indigent for 20 counties,” Niedermayer said. “We screen about 2,500 people every year. They have a drug problem or an alcohol problem and are looking for help. That’s our core service that we started with.”

“The struggle for drug and alcohol treatment availability is still massive. If you call me now to try to get in a bed, I might be able to in 4-6 weeks. Texas is not good at funding treatment programs.”

Niedermayer’s 100-person staff includes 15 master’s level therapists who deal with high levels of PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Others specialize in veterans’ housing, chronically homeless, plus drug and alcohol prevention programs for 30,000 students in 125 schools. 

“You may not hear the words alcohol and drugs in those classes. We’re trying to teach kids decision-making and how to be resilient and how to think positive about themselves because it’s not just ‘“don’t do drugs,” but you’ve got to think about not putting yourself in positions where you have to make the choice,” he said. “So many people we’re working with don’t have the adult support to teach them those kinds of things.”

The veterans therapy program started in 2013 and now has a $6.5 million budget. Veterans therapy is performed at all three locations along with virtually. 

“We have therapy programs and programs focused on housing for veterans,” Niedermayer said. “That program looks like it’s getting ready for a larger geographic area than North Texas area. We’ve been able to grow our program.”

In partnership with area emergency management service providers, Recovery Resource Council initiated an Overdose Response Team in 2021. Its goal is to contact those who survive an episode within 1-3 days and set up a wellness home visit.

“I call it an ‘uninvited intervention,’” Niedermayer said. “That’s about as close to what it really is. We do have people who will raise their hands and say ‘please help me get into treatment. I really don’t know what to do.’ Or sometimes we have spouses or parents, depending on who has been overdosing. At the very least we’re planting seeds.”

Niedermayer said the program has resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of return visits, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits. At minimum, it has prompted behavioral changes and reduced alcohol and/or drug usage, if not completely ending it. It has proven so popular it has expanded from Tarrant County into Hunt County and the cities of Dallas, Denton, McKinney, and Plano. 

Like too many non-profit organizations, Recovery Resource Council faces funding challenges due to federal government cuts. 

“Every EMS and fire department we have partnered with has embraced the idea,” he said. “Even as our funding has dwindled and we no longer pay the fire departments to do this work, they all kept it going.” 

To help make up the gap, the organization raised about $190,000 at its Stars in Recovery Luncheon in May featuring former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter. The Council’s next major fundraisers are Mahjong for Meaningful Change on September 13, 2025, at Edison’s Dallas, and the Golf Classic on October 15, 2025, at Texas Star Golf Course. 

For more information visit: 

RecoveryCouncil.org or call 817-332-6329.

Due to construction, all West Campus services will be temporarily held at 403 N Sylvania Ave, Fort Worth, TX 76111.