When Doug Rudolph was fighting his way out of alcoholism nine years ago, he looked for a list of all the available programs, meetings and support systems in the Twin Cities. But with most recovery organizations focusing on publicizing only their own activities, he couldn't find an all-inclusive source.
So he created one. A month ago he launched InRecovery, a one-stop Web information site for people battling addictions.
"I borrowed 'one-stop shopping' as my ad slogan," he said with a laugh.
But he's not joking about the site's mission. Some people teasingly call Minnesota "the land of 10,000 treatment centers," but that doesn't mean that it's always easy to find what one needs.
"There are a lot of events and lot of meetings, but the information is disjointed," Rudolph said. "Everything is associated with individual places. If someone says, 'I want to go to an event on Friday night,' there hasn't been any way to find out what's available. That's what I want to do."
His website is inrecovery.co (note the domain designation; using .com leads to a website dealing with computer data recovery). To create it, he started "searching the Twin Cities like crazy," he said. "I sent a lot of e-mails and I spent a lot of time online doing research and making connections. We list everything recovery-related: lectures, workshops, even plays. We have the most extensive list that exists in a single resource."
There are advocacy groups that serve as resource centers, but their connections "consist mostly of links that take you somewhere you can find the information," Rudolph said. "I don't want links. I want information."
In addition to the calendars that can be searched by date, type of event or the focus of the program, the website includes an e-magazine that offers recovery-related news, an advice column on legal matters and reader-submitted articles.