Sustaining collegiate recovery programs: a literature review and SWOT analysis

Substance use disorder and behavioral addictions remain significant concerns within higher education, yet little research has examined Collegiate Recovery Programs (CRPs) from an organizational perspective. This narrative literature review synthesized 71 peer reviewed studies to examine the internal and external organizational factors influencing the long term sustainability of CRPs using a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) framework. Following a comprehensive literature search, findings were analyzed using deductive thematic synthesis to identify recurring organizational characteristics within each SWOT domain. Five organizational strengths, five weaknesses, several external opportunities, and six external threats emerged across the body of literature. Organizational strengths included recovery supportive cultures, peer driven infrastructures, integration of recovery with student success initiatives, sustained recovery support, and institutional value. Recurring weaknesses included financial instability, organizational heterogeneity, inconsistent institutional integration, staffing variability, and limited organizational evaluation. External opportunities centered on expansion into diverse educational settings, institutional partnerships, workforce development, and strengthening the evidence base through longitudinal and financial evaluation, whereas threats included recovery stigma, unstable funding environments, inconsistent policy support, limited stakeholder awareness, and changing higher education environments. Collectively, the findings suggest that the sustainability of CRPs depends not only on positive student outcomes but also on organizational capacity, institutional integration, strategic partnerships, and measurable organizational performance. This review advances an organizational framework for understanding the broad impact and long term sustainability of CRPs and provides a foundation for future research, policy, and practice.