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Recovery Cafe 

Description

Utilizing a peer-to-peer based recovery support healing model, Recovery Cafe provides the essential anchor of loving community for homeless and formerly homeless women and men who struggle with alcohol and substance abuse and other mental health challenges. This foundation of support is fundamental for our Members to secure and maintain housing, basic services, education and employment as they rebuild their lives. Our low-barrier approach to recovery gives the people we serve as many chances as they need to sustain recovery and develop life skills to achieve their full potential.  This work is essential to ending homelessness.

Mission Statement
Recovery Café is a community in which women and men traumatized by homelessness, addiction, poverty and/or other mental health challenges come to know themselves as loved and as instruments of love in the lives of others with gifts to share. Recovery Cafe provides the ongoing recovery support needed to become stable in housing, relationships, health and employment.
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Recovery Cafe
2022 Boren Ave 
Seattle 
WA
98121 
(206) 374-8731 

David Coffey 
Executive Director 

Programs

Recovery Cafe Programs

Recovery Cafe holds 24 Recovery Circles weekly for Members. Recovery Circles are loving, accountability support groups that promote healing, community, and responsibility. 

Recovery Cafe serves a nourishing and nutritious lunch and dinner 5 days a week. At these meals resource referral assistance is provided by Members, staff and volunteers so Members can make the best use of available services in the Seattle community.

The School for Recovery offers a psycho-educational curriculum to deepen participants understanding of the addictive process, skill building for relapse prevention as well as development of life skills, and encourages healthy living through movement, art, texts, discussion, self reflection and assessment, writing, meditation, nutrition and healthy relationships. 

Recovery Cafe hosts 22 12-step meetings including Alcoholics Anonymous (in English & Spanish), Narcotics Anonymous, Dual Recovery Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Alanon in a dedicated space.

Recent Successes and Current Challenges

Recovery Cafe has only $200,000 left to raise to complete our comprehensive $12.7 million capital campaign.  The increased programming and service capacity this campaign has made possible has more than doubled the number of people served, and we anticipate tripling this number by the end of 2012.  

We have increased Membership from 120 to 360 women and men.

Recovery Cafe was just awarded the Innovation and Community Engagement Award from Food Lifeline.

Evaluation


The Recovery Café serves homeless and formerly homeless men and women who are struggling with addiction, mental illness, isolation and poverty.

Proven Success
The Café provides daily meals and drug and alcohol recovery programs in an atmosphere of a neighborhood café, making their programming particularly welcoming and accessible. The café is successful and growing rapidly because they actively engage people in long-term recovery, providing support structures that focus on addiction, mental illness, development, healthy living, housing support and promoting self esteem. Membership has grown from 120 when they moved into their new home in February 2010 to 321 as of April 2011.

Leadership
Recovery Café has strong board and staff leadership who bring with them significant expertise in working with homeless and formerly homeless populations who struggle with mental illness and addiction. They have a very large and vibrant volunteer program that supports the work of the Café’ and its many programs.

Use of Best Practices
The Café’s programs are consistent with evidence-based based practices and contain all the elements of a holistic intervention program that is designed to address the complex needs of homeless individuals suffering with addition, mental illness, isolation and poverty.

Accessibility and Cultural Competency
The Cafe’ has a low bar to access services and provides a very welcoming environment giving individuals many chances to sustain recovery and develop skills and knowledge to achieve their full potential, re-build their lives and break the cycle of addition, homelessness, poverty and unemployment. A person must have 24 hours drug and alcohol free to enter the Café but anyone can attend a 12-step meeting. Their model stresses member involvement through volunteering and community building and members are supported and encouraged by other members.

Financial Health
Recovery Café has been very successful in raising funds for operations and their capital campaign. The new location on Denny and Fairview offers twice as much floor and meeting space as well as additional opportunities to build partnerships with local youth-serving organizations.

Their major fundraising event is their Standing in the Gap Education of the Heart event. They typically secure a lead gift as well as a matching grant to help leverage the ask to individual donors.

Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

DateAmountPurpose
12/10/2011 $10,000.00support general operating expenses.
12/10/2010 $10,000.00support general operating expenses.
6/10/2009 $10,000.00support general operating expenses.
3/18/2004 $25,000.00support general operating expenses.

Financials

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