About Rise Above Recovery
An Iowa nonprofit corporation built on the belief that everyone deserves the chance to overcome addiction and thrive.
Mission
Rise Above Recovery empowers individuals impacted by substance use disorders through trauma-informed sober living homes, faith-integrated recovery support, life skills development, and community-based accountability programs to promote lasting recovery, dignity, and reintegration.
Vision
A world where everyone has the opportunity to overcome addiction and thrive — breaking stigma, promoting recovery, and building a supportive society.
How we began
Rise Above Recovery was founded in 2024 by Wayne Signs and Tyler Avery. Wayne brings lived experience and years of peer support involvement within the recovery community. After seeing how many people leaving treatment lacked stable, trauma-informed, and faith-integrated housing, they recognized a gap: individuals were trying to rebuild their lives without the supportive structure they needed.
What began as a simple idea — creating safe, accountable, trauma-informed recovery housing — is now growing into an organization committed to building sober living homes, voluntary faith-integrated support, and community-based accountability for individuals rebuilding their lives after substance use disorder. While Rise Above Recovery is still in its development phase, every step forward is guided by the belief that recovery is possible and that people deserve a dignified place to rebuild their lives.
An approach built around the whole person
Trauma-informed, always
Every part of our program — from house structure to accountability — is designed with an understanding of how trauma shapes behavior, prioritizing safety, choice, and empowerment.
Faith-integrated, never required
We offer optional faith-based support for residents who want it, while remaining fully welcoming to residents of any faith background or none at all.
Community-based accountability
Recovery is reinforced through peer relationships and shared responsibility, not isolation — residents support each other through structured, mutual accountability.
Dignity, hope, resilience, reintegration
We start from a simple premise: people are more than the worst chapter of their story. Every resident who comes through our doors is treated with dignity — not judged for how they arrived, but supported in where they're going.
We hold onto hope even in moments when a resident can't hold it for themselves, because we've seen that recovery is possible — not guaranteed, but possible, and worth building a program around.
Our programming is built to strengthen resilience: practical life skills, workforce readiness, and peer accountability that help residents weather setbacks without losing ground. And throughout, we keep an eye on the end goal — reintegration into family, work, and community life as a stable, contributing member, not just "graduation" from a program.
Service area
Rise Above Recovery is based in Waterloo, in Black Hawk County, Iowa, and primarily serves residents from Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and the surrounding Cedar Valley communities.
Our values
Dignity
Every person is treated with respect, regardless of where they are in their recovery journey.
Hope
Recovery is always possible — we hold hope for residents even when they can't hold it themselves.
Resilience
We build on each individual's strengths to help them weather setbacks and keep moving forward.
Integrity
We operate transparently and hold ourselves accountable to the communities and residents we serve.
Inclusivity
Our doors are open to all, regardless of faith background, referral source, or history.
Safety & Compliance
We maintain high safety standards and full ADA / Fair Housing compliance.
Staff & leadership
Rise Above Recovery's day-to-day work is currently led by our founder. We have not yet hired a Program Director or House Manager — those positions will be filled as we prepare to open our first home.
Wayne Signs
Vice President & Executive Director
Wayne founded Rise Above Recovery after years of peer support involvement within the recovery community, bringing lived experience to the organization's mission and day-to-day leadership.
Board of Directors
Rise Above Recovery is guided by a volunteer Board of Directors committed to sound governance and mission integrity. Per our Bylaws, the Board has 5–15 directors reflecting a range of recovery experience, backgrounds, and professional expertise — including mental health, law, finance, and social work. We are actively recruiting additional directors to join our founding board — reach out if you're interested.