Project Recovery

Project Recovery is Wisconsin’s crisis counseling program (CCP) in response to a disaster or critical event. Counselors are based in the local community to teach coping and stress management skills to anyone dealing with the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the event. The CCP helps individuals and communities recover from natural and human-caused disasters through community outreach and access to resources. Wisconsin has been involved with the CCP since 2001. Project Recovery activates when needs exceed the local community or state. 

Click the Project Recovery logo to be directed to the Project Recovery website.

Goals and Principles

The CCP helps people recover and rebuild their lives after a disaster. It supports short-term interventions that involve the following counseling goals:

• Helping disaster survivors understand their current situation and reactions.
• Reducing stress and providing emotional support.
• Assisting survivors in reviewing their disaster recovery options.
• Promoting the use or development of coping strategies.
• Connecting survivors with other people and agencies who can help them in their recovery process.

Key principles that make it different from other survivor support programs are:

• Strengths-based: services promote resilience, empowerment, and recovery.
• Anonymous: Crisis counselors do not classify, label, or diagnose people. No records or case files are kept.
• Outreach-oriented: Crisis counselors deliver services in the communities rather than wait for survivors to seek their assistance.
• Culturally aware:  Our staff strives to understand and respect the community and the cultures within the community.
• Conducted in nontraditional settings: Crisis Counselors make contact in homes and communities, not in clinical or office settings.
• Designed to strengthen existing community support systems: supplements, but does not end or replace, existing community systems.