Silvia and José Andrade have called Gilroy, California, home since 1982. As I sat across from them, listening to Patty Marquez-Singh translate their story, I was struck by how transformation, for good or ill, is driven by those who show up. And José and Silvia, program managers of Nueva Vida Recovery Café, keep showing up […]
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by Mike Schut Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The beloved community—it’s a phrase many will never forget, partly because Dr. King did so much to reveal what […]
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“We all need recovery from anything that blocks our capacity to love.” Recovery Café cofounder Killian Noe Recovery is “the regaining of…something lost or taken away.” That’s one of the definitions Google offers. That could mean regaining a house after a flood; saplings after a storm; a neighborhood after an inferno; a nation after tyranny. […]
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by Founder Killian Noe “To love; it is what matters. It is why we were created.” Leo Tolstoy The Recovery Café Network recently held one of our “All Network Conversations.” These conversations provide space for us to get to know each other more deeply while reflecting on topics relevant to our common mission. This time […]
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by Mike Schut, Communications Manager Recovery Cafés hold certain core beliefs as foundational. Beliefs and practices that become brick and mortar, that become a front desk and a warm welcome. Beliefs and practices that help you know, when you walk in, that you’re in a familiar place: a Recovery Café. One of those core beliefs […]
Read the full post >>by Mike Schut, Communications Manager “Love won’t be real or tested unless we somehow live close to the disadvantaged, who frankly teach us that we know very little about love. To be honest, my male Franciscan seminary training didn’t teach me how to love. It taught me how to obey and conform, but not how […]
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by Founder Killian Noe Susie lived in darkness. A few minutes after her birth—due to a mistake made by a medical professional in the delivery room—she lost her sight. She also lived in the darkness of loneliness and isolation that comes with addiction—until she met Rose. Rose accompanied Susie to Recovery Café for 14 years, […]
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Dear Recovery Café Network family, As you probably know, I love reminding us all of the truths at the heart of our shared calling. I would like to highlight just three of those truths in this piece. First of all, we are all so much more than our ACE scores. As you know so well, […]
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by Mike Schut, Communications Manager When I step back from the daily news, from the evidence all around us of cruelty, climate change, extreme inequity, and racism (to name but a few), one of humankind’s trajectories that provides me with some measure of comfort and courage is that it’s possible to see our history as […]
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As we strive to embody what Martin Luther King Jr. called “Love-force”, welcoming individuals traumatized by homelessness, addiction, mental health challenges, racism, and other assaults on dignity, we become light houses shining in the darkness of our time. Embodying “the way of love” for our surrounding communities to witness is one significant way of confronting […]
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