By David Uhl
Since joining the first cohort in June 2016, the Recovery Cafés in San Jose, Everett, and Spokane have been working hard to implement the Recovery Café model in their communities. For both San Jose and Everett that journey began before the Recovery Café Network (RCN) was formerly launched. For Spokane, they visited Recovery Café Seattle several times before RCN was created and were quick to join the first cohort.
We are excited to announce that hard works had paid off and each of these three Cafés graduated to Full Membership! After each Café completed their self-study on how they were living out the RCN Core Commitments, this winter we visited each Café as part of our evaluation process. We were blown away by their space, their team, and their embodiment of the Recovery Café model’s essence. We found ourselves affirming their efforts and celebrating their hard work. At the end of the process, we wrote up a report that they could share with their board full of affirmation and areas of growth. We have been humbled to have walked alongside them since June 2016 and look forward to walking alongside them for years to come.
“We are proud of each of these Recovery Cafés for their commitment to responding to the need in their communities by offering a place of support and transformation. Our hope is that these healing communities of belonging will become the norm in the way we respond to addiction and other mental health conditions in our country,” stated Killian Noe, Recovery Café Seattle’s Founding Director.
“Full membership in the Recovery Café Network realizes our dream of becoming a healing space for people on the margins, people who are yearning for being wanted and needed in community. Full membership means for us that when we tell people you don’t have to be alone, we have a structure and a staff to communicate that message, to hold people as they heal and grow, with intention and the backing of an organization that thoroughly and reflectively developed the Recovery Café model. We’re excited to be a part of a Network that will continue to learn together, and mentor Emerging Members of the Network.”
Now that San Jose, Everett and Spokane are Full Members, they living out the RCN Core Commitments in new ways. Building upon what they learned as Emerging Members, we are asking them to share their wisdom in new ways. Over the next year you will notice Full Members playing a larger role in the life of RCN in ways big and small. They may present at a training, host a RCN event, or share their expertise in ways we haven’t thought of yet.