Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to Hot or Iced. I'm Laura Beth Buchleiter.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: And I'm Alison Brinnicker. Here on Hot or Iced, we get together in local coffee shops to have conversations with fascinating people looking to make an impact, big or small, on the world and the people around them.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: We do that in three segments. First, we will brew it up. This is our chance to promote independent coffee shops and introduce the wonderful people who work in them. We get to meet our guests and catch up on the latest and greatest of. Well, whatever.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Next, we serve it up as we dive into the stories and lives of our guests, learning more about their lives and passions.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Finally, we savor it, letting the aroma of the coffee settle as we contemplate some deeper thoughts of life.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: However or wherever you found us, we're glad you did. Now, grab yourself a cup and pull up a chair.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Add that.
All right, here we go again.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: It's good to be back. We are in a little bit different vibe than usual, but we did not deprive ourselves of some lattes this morning.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: We did not.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: And we'll get a little bit more of where we are in introducing our delightful guest, Beth. Pronounce your last name for me. Crytel.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: Krytle.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Krytle. I was close.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: Very close.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Krytle. Okay.
And your work here with the Recovery Cafe and we bloom and how that relates to coffee and some things that we're excited about as far as what we're going to be doing with that.
But in weird so early in that adventure with you that the cafe isn't actually set up. There's not a espresso machine. There's not a barista here. So Allison and I did stop.
Where do we stop?
[00:02:01] Speaker B: The alchemists.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: The alchemist. I keep wanting to say the apothecary. Which is, I mean, kind of alchemy related. Right. I get some points, don't I?
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Okay. But it's not. It. It is the Alchemist and. And it's a very. It's a lovely place. It is such a lovely place that it's where we're going to have our coffee club. It is next month in April.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So the third Saturday in April, we will gather at the Alchemist and. I got my usual hot latte.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: You did?
[00:02:36] Speaker A: And it is a dark orange. Chocolate.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Dark chocolate.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Orange or orange dark chocolate or something? Yeah, yeah. It's orange and dark and it's chocolate and. Amazing.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Was it okay?
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Was it too sweet with the chocolate?
[00:02:56] Speaker A: It was sweet, but not too sweet.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Maybe I was just a little sour and I needed a little more sweet than usual.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: But maybe.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Maybe.
But. Yeah. No, it was just. And I think the citrusy kind of cut through the chocolate as. As it does. As it should. Yeah. So. Yeah. Very. Yeah. Good. Good drink.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Good drink. What did you. What did you. What'd you go for?
[00:03:21] Speaker B: I did an ice latte. I did not do one of their specialty lattes, but I did a couple pumps of toffee syrup in coffee.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Toffee.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Toffee. I always have to have a little bit of, like, a. A flavored syrup in mine.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Sure.
And if it's one, I can say with an accent, even better.
[00:03:41] Speaker C: Even better.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: So that leads us to Beth. If you were choosing coffee, would you choose hot or iced?
[00:03:50] Speaker C: I would say that 99% of the time, I'm going to choose hot.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
[00:03:56] Speaker C: Even when it's warm outside, I always have a cup of hot coffee in the morning. I, um. Lately, I've really gotten into oat milk. Oh.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:05] Speaker C: So I've been doing lattes when I go out and about with oat milk. That's become my new obsession. And then if there's lavender syrup, even better.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Something that speaks very well to our group community.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Well, that's true.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Good. Lavender. Hard to go wrong.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: You just had a lavender latte at Fruit Frog, didn't you?
[00:04:26] Speaker A: I frequently have lavender. I. You know what? I'm going to confess. I had an iced lavender latte.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: I know. Yeah.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: I kind of Lavender hand cream. So if we, you know, to feel inspired with our lavender.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Thank you.
I did. I went for an ice. I was like. It was late in the day, and I was going to be. In fact, I was going to be walking from there to your house, and I was like, I'm going to be out for a walk. I think it was. It was. It was one of those teasing us with spring days in Indiana.
It was just. It was a nice moment. Yeah. So. So lest. Lest anyone accuse me of being set in my ways.
You're not. Yeah. Which. No one ever accuses me of that. But. But lest they might.
Yeah.
So we. You brought up an interesting thing. We've never really had the. The. The type of milk conversation. What we have. Yeah. I don't know how we have not.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: But I know I enjoy an oat milk latte every now and then, but I am more of a 2% person.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: A lot of places only have whole or skim or then like an alternative and whole's okay. But I feel like sometimes it upsets my stomach just a little bit, so I prefer the 2%. I cannot do skim milk anymore in a latte because it just feels so watery.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. I've. I tried to switch to almond. I know. For a little while, but it's. It's. I'm just sticking with the whole milk. Yeah. Yeah.
Eventually my stomach will catch up with me. Yeah.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Have you had macadamia nut milk? Because I find that as very delicious, too. Only a couple coffee shops I feel like have it, but it's good.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: That seems pretty niche. Yeah.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: But right up there.
Great.
Well, we. We're foregoing the snack because we wanted to create a little bit more time for the talking about where we are.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Piece of this because it's unique and it's special and we're excited about it, but.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Okay. Well, so, yes, we are at the Recovery Cafe on Meridian street, and this is a new location for you all. When did you move into this building?
[00:06:51] Speaker C: January 22nd.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Okay, awesome.
[00:06:54] Speaker C: Oh, so two months ago today.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Okay.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Oh, it is. Yeah.
Well.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: And when we pulled in, and actually, when I looked at it on Google Maps, this is, like, the most lovely streets. I bet in the fall, it's just, like, gorgeous. It just feels so, I don't know, quaint. Like you're in this little, like, New England town, you know? I don't know.
[00:07:11] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Uh, and the vibes of this building are just wonderful. I really love it.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: And I did, when we were pulling up, I said, oh, look, it's the green building. And I thought, was it green before?
[00:07:25] Speaker C: It's actually getting painted as we speak.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: I was like, yeah. And I was like, it's only half green actually as we speak. But yeah. Yeah. So it's. It is a work. A lovely work in progress. Yeah.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Did you have a hand in picking out the color, the exterior color? Yes, I love it.
[00:07:42] Speaker C: I'm obsessed with teal in all shades, so that's meant to be kind of a darker teal. And we'll have at the very top in the front, some little purple accents on the bricks that jut out with some off white. So it's going to be all kinds of fun and fancy.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: Okay, amazing. That sounds great.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: So this isn't your traditional coffee shop by any stretch of the imagination, but like you said, we're going to. There'll be an espresso machine and a coffee bar and a barista and. But just tell us a little bit about how coffee relates to the purpose and vision and mission, if that's the right word, of the Recovery Cafe.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Thank you. So the Recovery Cafe is really a place that is meant to be a safe, warm, inviting place to connect with other people.
Love is really at the center of what we're about, and one of the ways that we seek to make those connections between people is through coffee and through food. And so our vision to have our espresso machine will involve having a daily latte hour where members can order a latte to their liking with all the specifications they may want, which for our membership is not necessarily something they have access to on a regular basis. And so we often talk about the preparation of the coffee and the drink. And even now with our regular coffee, which is very graciously donated from Julian's Coffee and Tinkerhouse, we are so intentional about putting love and healing and connection kind of energy into the coffee itself and then really being able to serve that with the intention of connecting. And so for us in the Recovery Cafe, coffee has always been part of what we do, from the time we started six years ago.
And our members really gather around coffee, connecting, taking it into their recovery circles, which we can see over here in the space, enjoying it out here in our healing community.
So that idea of sharing coffee, breaking bread, is all about kind of facilitating natural ways to deepen those connections.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah. That's amazing.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: So you've been bouncing around a little bit around Indianapolis for the last six years.
You were most recently in the library.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Doing the best you can and went through this space. And so you. You have been designing and visioning this space around, like I said, around food and coffee.
And so tell us a little bit more about what is already here, what's in the works as far as your kitchen and your coffee bar and what's. And what you need and what we're working toward. Yeah.
[00:10:49] Speaker C: Okay, awesome. So what we have here right now is back over there in the corner. You can see that's our barista area. And so right now, we have a wonderful brand new commercial coffee maker, and we have delicious coffee. We also have filtered water folks can put right into their cup or their bottle, which we're happy to have that in Indianapolis.
What we're working towards, however, is to have, as I mentioned before, a full espresso machine.
And also, in addition to the coffee, they have different kinds of syrups, different kinds of milks, creams, that kind of thing. Right now, our members are using usually a powdered creamer. So we're looking to Upgrade. So that's one of the things that we're excited about, is building those partnerships out with gleaners and second helpings and hopefully other folks that may want to donate some of those products. But one of the main things that excited about and looking forward to is actually having real mugs, so real coffee mugs as opposed to this paper cup that I have featured here.
So behind, if, if you look over there on the wall, there's going to actually be open shelves. And that's where we envision our coffee mugs going.
So, and we've talked about what are some different ways that we could make that really special. So is that people bringing in their coffee mug? Is it having the Recovery Cafe logo on the coffee mug? Is it folks having their names put on the mugs? So that's one of the pieces that we're working on. And then for food, at the moment, our commercial kitchen is not completed. And so we're serving sandwiches, snacks, things that second helpings can donate to us. But eventually we're going to have one and then two hot meals each day that we're open.
So that's probably going to be later on in the year. We'll start by first getting the kitchen done, then doing hot meals with second helpings, and then eventually actually preparing hopefully delicious and healthy food.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Excellent. And I will say that while your kitchen isn't done, it is more done now than the first time I saw it. So progress is. Is happening. And that's.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: Thanks, Laura.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Always a beautiful thing to see.
And so the, I mean, the, the function of the Recovery Cafe, and we'll get into this a little bit more in our next section. It isn't about serving coffee and serving food, it's about serving people and using food and coffee to do that. So just talk, just briefly, a little bit more about kind of the history of Recovery Cafe, not just here in Indy, but kind of where that came from and where it's expanded to around the state and what your. The role of this place is and all of that. Yeah.
[00:13:44] Speaker C: So the first Recovery Cafe was actually born out in Seattle, Washington in 2004. Killian NGO is the founder and her vision was to have a space that is really for folks who don't have a safe place to go, who don't have people who know them deeply, who love them deeply, who don't have a sense of belonging or membership, and are often overlooked. And so although the Recovery Cafe is open to everyone, it's designed to be a place for our most vulnerable community members and that vulnerability could be based on anything.
Certainly poverty and housing insecurity, food insecurity. That's a part of it. But it may also be based on identity or stigma or, you know, all kinds of things where humans can other each other and separate themselves from each other. So that first one started in 2004, and in 2016, what happened was folks had started to come to the Recovery Cafe Seattle and ask for training. How do we start one of these in our community?
You can actually just feel the love and the connection in the space. And so people would come and the network. Excuse me, the cafe at that time realized this is going to take quite a bit of work to really teach and train on this model. And so that's where the formation of the Recovery Cafe national network started. So it's, of course, headquartered in Seattle.
The exciting thing is, is that this building they actually invested a half a million dollars in to be the Midwest center of the network. So we'll also be part of and have been part of helping to expand the growth of the Recovery Cafes in Indiana and in the Midwest. So this Cafe started in 2019 as the first cafe in our state, and now there are 20 in Indiana, and then there's, I think, seven more in the Midwest. We have 75 total in the national network.
So it's a growing model. It's really exciting.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: A lot of neat stuff. And, you know, our connection to coffee and seeing the value of.
Of coffee as community coffee as a catalyst for community through the Indie Queer Coffee Club is really what sparked a lot of our conversations and such. And so we've been excited about.
We're calling it our mug drive.
And so I've been. We've been announcing this in some of the bumpers, but we'll. We'll start promoting it through the coffee club and through the podcast where you can donate to buy a pair of mugs.
And it's a pair because Recovery works better in pairs.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: And yeah, so $20 will buy a pair of.
Of logo and printed mugs. Or for those that are meeting with us in person, you can bring a mug and we can have an eclectic. So there'll be both a collection of branded mugs for the Recovery Cafe as well as some eclectic, more personal, homey stuff. And so I am excited to see that shelf grow and, and make that happen. There has been a conversation in my home with my daughter about why $20 for a pair of mugs? Do you sure that I can get a pair of mugs for cheaper than $20? And yes, yes, I absolutely could. And also it's a nice round number. And there's other things like the coffee and the creamer and the cost of the shelf itself. And so all of those things. Yes, there is more to that $20 than just the mug.
[00:17:43] Speaker C: But yeah, maybe you can even tell her. I discovered this past week that there actually isn't money in the budget for the shelves. So that would be perfect.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Okay.
And we'll figure that out too.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: The.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: The wall was created to hold the shelves, but the shelves themselves somehow not in the budget.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: That happens. That happened.
Well.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: And not to throw a wrench on things, but I just wanted to add for those of us that are on Team Ice and for your cafe members that may be Team Ice, maybe we need to think about a way to also donate some like glasses for those that want, you know, like, will you guys have cold brewer iced coffee available?
[00:18:28] Speaker C: Absolutely. We have a. It's. The ice maker is actually in the kitchen, but we have an ice bin. So we definitely plan to do iced coffee and that will be, I'm sure, a big hit for our members. They don't really have that option right now, but they love ice in general. We have a lot of ice lovers. Yeah.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Okay, so maybe some sort of glassware outside of mugs.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: I mean, I'll get excited about it on your behalf.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: I got it. I'll just, I'll just spearhead that one. Don't worry about it. I'll talk about it later.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: I like you and you like iced coffee, so that works for me. So great. Okay, well, I am pretty sure the coffee is sufficiently brewed and so we will jump on in and look forward to learning more about Beth and just your journey and how we got here a little bit.
Whatever you want to share with us. So yeah, we'll come back and serve it up.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Hotter Ice is produced by the Indie Queer Coffee Club, which you can find and follow on Facebook or Instagram. There you can learn about our in person gatherings and other ways to be part of this community. We really like coffee, but we love people and would love to meet you. For now, stick around. It's time to serve it up.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: All right, we are back to serve up the coffee.
So we have been getting to know Beth a little bit and the Recovery Cafe. And Beth is the executive director of Webloom and the Recovery Cafe and we Bloom is the. The fiscal organization that. That is the core sponsor of the Recovery Cafe and the co founder of the cafe here in Indiana. And as you were talking earlier, expanded into the Midwest, working with other organizations to work in their communities. But I would just really love to know more just about your own journey into this space.
Personally, professionally. This isn't something that somebody just wakes up and says, oh, that feels like a good career path. I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go revamp an old building on the south side of Indianapolis because that's always fun.
And yeah, serve people. Serve coffee to people who are.
Who are struggling in life.
So, yeah, just tell us a little bit just about your own.
What, Whatever you want to. Are willing and able to share with us about that space.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: Yeah. How much time do we have?
[00:21:41] Speaker B: I'll just.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: I'm kind of half joking about that, but I appreciate the question.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And we'll come back when the mug wall is full and do another episode, so.
[00:21:51] Speaker C: Oh, perfect. So I could maybe just do a short version.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: This is part one. We can.
[00:21:58] Speaker C: Okay, so part one.
I never envisioned myself being an entrepreneur or starting something new that was certainly not anything that interested me. And I don't want to fully own this, but I do think I have kind of a type A personality. So kind of startup world is not something that just naturally appealed to me. But to your point, Lorvet, it has been a journey. And so for me, recovery is a very personal thing to me. Starting when I was a kid, we were raised in a religious cult here in Indiana and experienced trauma of all kinds. And as a result of that, there's a lot of mental health and substance use challenges in my family.
And for me, even though there was just so many horrific, traumatic things that happened in this culture, I've always felt this very deep connection to my spiritual self and then also love psychology.
So I ended up as an undergrad, wanting to study psychology, but also feeling kind of afraid of it. I just don't think I was ready to go there. So I studied French and international business, took a psychology class, loved it, but really pursued those spiritual and psychological things on my own. Was involved in faith communities, also did a lot of reading. But when I got into my 20s after school, I started to recognize this pattern of finding myself in relationships with people that seem to have drinking and drug using behaviors that I couldn't live with.
So this pattern was becoming very distinct, was very painful.
And there were a series of things that happened to me sequentially that led me to checking out the 12 step program of recovery. And so I don't know if either of you are familiar with Al Anon, but it's for friends and family members of Folks who are dealing with alcohol and drug use. But so I started that when I was 25. So that kind of the beginning of my recovery journey as I know it and define it. So flash forward into work.
Also, in my 20s, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do professionally, so that was really challenging.
It was horrific for me to feel like I didn't know what my purpose was. And so the faith community I was part of offered a program that let me kind of discern my skills, my abilities, my interests. All of it was pointing towards counseling psychology. So I ended up going to IU ND and getting my master's in counseling and decided to pursue career counseling. And that was really at the encouragement of my supervisor, who said, you know, I think you need a little more space to work through your own trauma before you roll up your sleeves and really get in deep with other people. And I appreciate that so much. So that journey led me to IU Bloomington, and then out to Seattle. So why that ties into this story is because, as I shared with you earlier, Seattle is the home of the Recovery Cafe. The first one. And so the first day I was there, I'm driving to my interview at Seattle University, and I look up and I see Recovery Cafe, and I'm like, what's that? I'm a recovery person. This sounds kind of cool. Never heard of anything like this. So I got involved as a volunteer, went to the fundraisers. Just loved it. I loved how it was about, we're all recovering from something. Every pathway of recovery is welcome, and really, it's centered on love. And so flash forward, I got married, I moved to Vietnam, did some community development work there. And that's really where I love the.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Way you just so casually said, I moved to Vietnam as one place that's a whole.
Yes. Yeah. No, I just had to name it that it was. I. You heard that? I just wanted to stop and say, you heard that, right?
[00:26:22] Speaker C: I heard that.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: But I also like this for our listeners. Yes, she did just say, I moved to Vietnam, and we're just gonna gloss over it like it's a normal thing. Yeah.
[00:26:36] Speaker C: It'S not normal at all, which is why I would take a while for me to unpack.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: But.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: But I would love to do that at some point, because it's really about the. The heart of why we Bloom was born, and really how the Recovery Cafe came to be here in Indy was through this desire to be in community and this desire to know, deeply know and understand what the community needs, what our strengths are. Where are the gaps? And so as I engaged in this really intentional conversation for about six months with different people in recovery, you know, working in recovery, living in recovery, I started to notice these themes. And I was, of course, keeping notes, keeping track of everything. And then, as the universe would have it, I received this postcard from Recovery Cafe in Seattle, and I was like, I hadn't thought of this model, but this could actually be an amazing fit with what we're seeing and experiencing. So we gathered the community together, did a forum back in November of 2018.
Folks were so excited, and I was like, great, we have no money, so who has a space? Where can we get our coffee?
How do we get our food? Where do we get our people to hold the space and, you know, facilitate circles and all of that? So the journey that got me here feels very circuitous, and it was. And I would say that it's both deeply personal and professional. And so I'm excited that I've been able to fully embark into the recovery space and the work here. I will also say, though, it's probably been the most challenging work I've ever been involved in. And, you know, we. Bloom is going to be eight years old this year, and the cafe is going to be six. So we've been going at this for a little while, and certainly this new building presents a whole new set of opportunity, but also challenges. So I know we're going to talk about some things later related to recovery and wellness, but I do feel like following your path step by step by step is really what got me here. It's really my recovery journey of what's the very next thing and just trusting the process.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: So.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: Very cool.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: No, I feel like I have so many questions, and. And one being, is. Is the Indianapolis location the first, like, satellite location from Seattle or where? Oh, it is.
[00:29:15] Speaker C: Okay. So it's the first.
So it's kind of like the national network headquartered in Seattle, but this is the first other physical location for the network. So that's why it's the Midwest center of the Recovery Cafe network. And then Recovery Cafe Indy and our youth program, Discovery Cafe Indy, will be the vehicle for training folks and showing them how it works and getting people excited and to really feel and understand what the model is about. So it helps us in our catalyst work, and it'll help us train as kind of part of the national network work.
[00:29:51] Speaker B: Gotcha. Okay. And so we. Bloom is also part of all of the Indiana Recovery Cafes, or no, that piece.
[00:30:02] Speaker C: I know, it's kind of confusing.
Yes. So We Bloom serves as the Midwest regional catalyst. So that means we help start them, but they're all independent nonprofits, and that. That's. It's a social licensing model. So every cafe is independent.
You know, the curriculum, the model is copyrighted, and that's kind of what you buy into and get trained on.
I could go into a lot of detail about what it means to be part of the network at some point, but. Yes. So it can be a little confusing. We both run and operate the Indianapolis Recovery Cafe, and we serve as the Midwest Regional catalyst. So that's kind of Webloom's role.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: So bottom line, if you're in, like, financially supporting We Bloom, there is, like, a general contribution to. We Bloom is both a contribution to Indiana Indianapolis Cafe as well as the catalyst for the Midwest.
[00:30:58] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: Yeah. But funds could be designated specifically to the Indianapolis Cafe.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:06] Speaker C: And I would say that's the focus of our fundraising, where the nash, as part of the national network, we certainly are working with regional funding and national funding, kind of referring that to the national network. But they're the ones that distribute funds to the cafes, I will say. Which we may want to edit this out. But we also were the conduit for state funding for Indiana cafes, so that kind of gave us yet another relationship. So it was like, wait a second. What? You're also taking in money for the cafes? That has since mostly ended with shifts in federal funding and that kind of thing. But. So we did play a bigger part in the Indiana cafes getting started because of that.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Sure.
And we're gonna choose to not go down that political road.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: I wondered, as I said that. Wait a minute.
For our own mental health.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Let's say that. Mental health. For our own wellness. Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah. So the.
Are there goals for the Midwest? I mean, do you have, like, is there. What else is in the works? What else that you could. That you might be able to.
[00:32:24] Speaker C: Yeah. So we continue to have communities from Indiana just seek us out that are interested in starting cafes. And so we will, of course, continue to walk alongside those communities, take them through the process. But our goals are also to really more proactively get into the states that are surrounding us.
Minnesota is also in our geographic region. Seems like there's maybe one more Midwestern state. I can't think of it, but certainly the four that touch us. And so right now, we are intentionally moving towards Illinois in particular. And part of that's because we've just had several folks that have reached out and expressed interest.
The state of Illinois seems to be really excited about the model, which is always helpful. So Illinois is kind of on our radar right now.
In Kentucky, we have three cafes that have started and the one in Lexington is really strong. They're just amazing. They do a drag show every year as one of their social events for members.
So they're kind of part of helping kind of ignite that awareness and excitement about starting recovery cafes in Kentucky. So we're working with them and then hoping to get to Ohio and Michigan. But we kind of have to go step by step. I mean, we'll respond to anyone who reaches out. But in terms of being proactive about it, we're kind of focusing more on Illinois and Kentucky at the moment, if that makes sense.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: That makes perfect sense.
Couple follow up questions. I am going to dive a little bit into the political cultural climate right now in the sense that we are in a shifting landscape and financing and conduits aside for that, how are you seeing that impact? Really more the street level, the membership level, how are you seeing.
Let me. I'll just.
I am foreseeing increased need for recovery resources in the private sector in the months and years and foreseeable future ahead. And do you feel like you all are kind of in a.
For such a time as this moment?
[00:34:56] Speaker C: Yeah. And Laura Beth, it's interesting that you mentioned that because the founder of the recovery cafes, Killian, her call to all of us who have started cafes is to kind of invoke funding partners who are deeply aligned with our mission. And so it's not about chasing down the dollars. Yes, we're going to ask a lot of people, but we're going to find and attract those folks who really embody the mission alongside us. And so you can even see there our little sign on the table there. We are very explicitly a space that prioritizes and strives to be inclusive.
And with that, one of the core commitments that all the cafes make is to work together to end oppression of all kinds, Systemic oppression of all kinds. And so I'm curious to see if the network decides to soften its language since that would be, you know, systemic racism is not allowed to be said in these ways. But I guess all of that to say they have led the way in modeling how you build a base of individual donors, of corporate sponsors, even foundations that are really aligned. And although they've been excited about all the government support in Indiana, it's not really something that, that they've experienced to the same degree in Washington state and certainly wasn't the way they got started.
So I think for us, these are designed to be community based and that doesn't mean we don't want or need government funding. Of course, that's always a helpful way to get started, get that seed funding, get things rolling.
But the cafes are also meant to be connectors, you know, where we're connecting our members to resources in the community, to all kinds of assistance. And so we know that, you know, in our state alone with the Medicaid numbers, the goal is to go from 750,000 to 500,000 people on Medicaid. And it's like, okay, well, what is that going to mean for our folks who don't have other options to get treatment and to get health care? So. And then housing. I mean, there's just part of me doesn't even want to go there today.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: No. And I, I asked the question gently just because, like you said, because I do want to in the present moment, take care of the souls that are in this space, being the three of us.
And also in the conversation around the Recovery Cafe and the work that you're doing, we can't ignore the fact that we. Look, you are. I'm sitting here looking at this street and this street isn't going to be the same. Isn't now the same street that it was five months ago?
It's a different street than it was when you bought this building because the people on it are going are having different fears, are having different concerns, are. Have. Are living into different realities because of choices that have been made way out of their control.
And that's going to continue to be more and more the reality as we move forward. And so, you know, I'm.
Yeah. And I don't.
I ask the question really as a backward way to honor the fact that places like the Recovery Cafe work, like the work that you have been doing since 2018, really work that you've been doing since long before that that, that led you up to that have been moving in a direction for a moment like now that says we're in a position to help in a way now that if we were just starting to look around and say, oops, this isn't.
Something's broken, we're going to need help. Which if you're in that position out there somewhere, say, oops, say something's broken and, and start the journey, start the path, start down that road.
But also know that there are models out here, there are things in the works, there are things moving and rolling that, that can be.
You don't have to Reinvent wheels. You don't have to start from scratch.
Yeah.
[00:39:35] Speaker C: Please add one other tiny little thing because I. Yep. I can't believe it, but I can believe it. So I shared, you know, that I'm a cult survivor, so I often unconsciously forget to talk about the role of faith communities.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:49] Speaker C: We, our founder talks about this model and says it's faith inspired.
And so many of our cafes thrive because of faith communities involvement, whether that's volunteering funding and kind donations, whatever that may be. So I also feel like in these times, that's another really important part of our community that can lean into this. And I know for us here in Indianapolis, that's a big growth area. It's a huge opportunity for us. And as I've shared with you, I don't want to partner with all faith communities, only the ones that are love based and inclusive. So. Yeah, tangent over here.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Oh, it's. And it's one close to my heart, as you know, put the title here, but it is Reverend LAURA.
Yeah, it's such a, it's such a tricky wicket right now because faith communities are largely responsible for the, the mess that we're in. And faith communities are also still the beacons of love and hope.
And so there's so much irony tied up in that.
And, and I think your own journey just captures that. It's, you don't, you don't lean that way because there's so much hurt and so much trauma. And we, I mean, talking in the queer community, we get this so often, you know, just to, to mention what I do in a queer space, it's like it, I do it with trepidation because it's, it's, I'm either going to get who the hell do you think you are?
Or I grew up in the church and that hurt. And also I, I wish I could be in one.
You know, I, I am a spiritual person.
I am the, you know, and so I, we see that in recovery. We see that in the queer community in anti racist spaces. Yeah.
So the irony is not lost on me and the, the power of it is not lost on me. The responsibility of it is not lost on me. For those of us who are in faith communities who strongly desire to be known for love above all else, you know, which, not to go quoting scripture, but. Sorry, I just quoted scripture.
Yeah. For those of us that have that desire, now is the time to be louder than ever and to be louder than ever quietly in spaces like this.
So. Right. Well, thank you for that dive and that Tangent got my heart boiling a little bit.
So yeah, we'll take another little break and come back in just a minute and talk a little bit more about wellness.
We want to invite you to be part of our community, even if gathering in person isn't really your thing. Hot or iced and the IndyCare Coffee Club are partnering with the Indianapolis Recovery Cafe to provide coffee mugs for their new space. A gift of $20 buys a pair of mugs and supports their other coffee resources. Because recovery, like coffee, is best when you have someone join, find a link in the show notes or comments or visit my webpage at www.laura bethany.com that's L A U R A hyphen B E T H A N Y.com now take a sip of whatever you're sipping, take a deep breath and get ready to savor them.
[00:43:48] Speaker D: This is a poem called the Comfort Cafe written by dj, a member of Recovery Cafe, Hamilton County.
Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?
Would you like a snack or a meal?
Is there something on your mind?
Would you like someone to talk to?
Close your eyes and take a deep breath.
Wait.
Now exhale.
How about that?
It's not electronic and there's no need to upgrade.
Sometimes you can find comfort by reminding yourself that you are still alive, living one breath and one heartbeat at a time, and that in this moment and every moment, many things are still possible.
Sometimes, in this unpredictable life, we may find a safe harbor or we did not expect one. While the wind rages and the fires roar and the road seems to vanish before our eyes.
Sometimes we might feel like we've lost our way and no longer belong.
But sometimes something opens, like a room or a heart.
Often the best things in life appear out of nowhere and invite us inside.
The Comfort Cafe is more than part in a storm. It is a place to connect with kindred souls and fellow travelers who can remind you to listen to the whispers of your own truth and who can help you repair your compass and help you find another way to be.
Close your eyes.
Take a deep breath.
Wait a moment.
Pause.
Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?
Would you like something to eat?
Is there something on your mind?
Come on in.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for being you.
[00:46:21] Speaker B: Welcome back.
We are ready to savor coffee. We've been here with Beth and she just graciously shared kind of how her journey, how she got involved and we learned more about Recovery Cafe space. And that leads us to our question of the week, of the month.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: Your favorite part, my favorite car yeah.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: What does it mean to be well?
[00:46:56] Speaker A: Yeah, so here's. Here's where I land. I mean, I have a. My own journey with recovery and the more similar to Beth, related to trauma and recovery from some religious spaces in that capacity and really some misunderstanding of what wellness is. And, you know, so it's very easy to.
To mask the idea of wellness. The name of my book is shattering masks. And I mean, just the whole idea that it's easy to paint this picture of wellness and being okay and being fine, especially in our western culture. It's what we do. I mean, it's our success. Our comfort lovers in society are very much gauged by how well we are.
But the. That idea of wellness is kind of a false picture of what it is. So in the context of recovery, in the context of wholeness, in the context of what we were just talking about, of a space that is truly loving as a faith community, as a recovery community, as a social coffee club, what does it mean to be well?
What does it mean to show up well? What does it mean to create space? To be well?
What does it mean to be well?
I won't put either of you on the spot. Whoever wants to answer.
[00:48:37] Speaker C: I can start.
Well, I feel like we could go in a thousand directions with this question.
It's a deep subject, so I'll try to answer it in the context of both the individual and the community as we would think of it in the Recovery Cafe. So we have six guiding principles that really form kind of the parameters and the conditions for how we seek to create wellness within our community and with ourselves. And so I always talk about these six guiding principles in relationship to first with ourselves and then with each other. So I'll just talk about the first one, which the actual true language is to connect with the divine love in yourself and in each other. Around here, we just say connect with the love with a capital L, just in case that word might be a trigger. But the reason why I chose that one is because it's this idea that at the core of our deepest self, the part of ourself that hasn't been touched by the trauma, by the disappointments, the hurt, the neglect, the abuse, all of those things, there's just this pure love source.
And so for me, and I think for this community, and the reason why it resonates so much is because wellness, recovery health is really about engaging in practices that help us reconnect to that love source and become aware of and work through ways to put aside, to put down, or to integrate all of these coping mechanisms that we, we come to connect with just to survive and, and really recognizing, hey, this is blocking me from this love source. And when I'm blocked from mine, then I can't connect in the same way with the, the love source that lives in you. So I know that sounds maybe a little cliche, that can take all kinds of forms in mind, body, spirit, but that is again, where I think the coffee and the food comes into like, nourishing the body. We nourish the heart, the relationships, the connections. So that's my starting point.
[00:51:01] Speaker A: I love every single bit of that. And that really does cross a lot of ecumenical and doctrinal and philosophical boundaries. I mean, that. Everything from Vedic and Buddhist thinking to, you know, early Magnesian type thoughts around self and the divine within. And yeah, there's just so much, so much beauty and the freedom to seek wholeness and the understanding that me seeking wholeness is not a selfish act.
Me seeking wholeness is something that I do for the sake of myself, but also so that others can engage that wholeness on behalf of their own wholeness. It's an upward spiral that we're inspiring in that moment. And so, yeah.
Any thoughts, Allison, and I mean from your own context, even in what you do as a social worker and, or whatever you want to think, don't let me.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: Well, something that keeps coming to my mind is that in order to be. Well, that's not something I personally can do on my own. I can't be well by myself. It requires community, it requires friendships, it requires a support team, a therapist, whatever.
Friendships.
I just think wellness is so rooted in community and our connections with other people.
I don't know if that's makes any.
[00:52:43] Speaker A: Sense, but it does. Absolutely. And, and again, to your, to your work as a social worker, that's. You were providing that in the context of helping to understand, helping people who don't naturally find their own ways to connect. You're helping them find that and find that space and being that connection for them that they don't, they don't naturally come by.
So, yeah, I mean, I think I agree.
I mean, in both those cases, I think wellness is, I think the misnomer in most of our culture and most of society is of our Western society is that wellness is something that we have to bring to the table and that we're not supposed to show up at the table until we've got it and in. Instead of wellness being something that we find at the table.
And if wellness isn't something that you're finding at the table. Find another table.
Just. Yeah. And in fact, put that table away. Let's break that table down.
Let's just make that table into the bonfire that the other tables gather around.
Yeah, but I mean, it's just. It's.
Wellness should be something that comes out of community.
And then as it comes out of community, we were talking about this whole idea that I get a glimpse of my wholeness with each step I take toward it.
And it's not this. All of a sudden, I am well, and oops, okay, great.
I unlocked it. But it's like this veil is lifting and this fog is fading. And so I see it a little bit more clearly. And because I see it a little bit more clearly, I can lean into it more confidently. And because I lean into it more confidently, I can see it a little bit more clearly. And the more I do that, the more I bring other people in, I'm more comfortable bringing other people into the mix. I feel safer bringing other people into the mix. And when I do that, I am helping them be more confident. I gain confidence from them, and then the fog lifts even more. And it's just this. This natural progression toward wellness. I think we want to take a pill.
[00:55:14] Speaker B: We do.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: I think. I think we just want to take the red pill and be ejected from the matrix and. Or is it the blue pill? I never get.
Yeah.
I never. Yeah.
Yeah. We either want to be in it or out of it and be just. Yeah. Satisfied one way or the other. But there's a. There's a process and a beautiful process, and it's not the destination that defines wellness. It's the way we gauge the process and the journey that gets there.
[00:55:50] Speaker C: So could I add one little.
[00:55:52] Speaker A: I wish you would.
[00:55:54] Speaker C: Okay, so just to tie this back into the recovery cafe, I think all of us know, or it's talked about, I think pretty widely, that a lot of the cause for compulsive addictive behaviors, substance use, et cetera, it really comes from isolation.
And so to the point about community being linked to wellness, the way that this recovery community works is it is about providing that social support and that community. And we do it in a very intentional way where membership means that you belong to a recovery circle, where you have a small group of people who really get to know you deeply and love you deeply, and then you have this larger community where you can have fun and self express in different exciting ways and take classes and do all kinds of things. But the essence of that is really, to your point, that we can't do this alone. And I feel like in recovery spaces, people start to understand that. But what would it be like if, as humans, we really got that, like, we have to be in community to be well. We have to know each other. It can't be about talking about you over there, who I have no relationship with, no idea what your reality is. So anyway, I'm just thinking about wellness on all these levels and wanted to share that piece.
[00:57:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it has. It has to have a spot on. On the ground that everything comes together. It has to have a space where everything gets real.
And we actually have a physical, tangible table, not a proverbial hypothetical table that we actually meet at. So this is great. This has been absolutely fantastic. Thank you, Beth.
[00:57:46] Speaker B: Definitely need a round poo.
[00:57:47] Speaker A: There will definitely be.
[00:57:48] Speaker B: I have more questions.
[00:57:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And looking forward to watching this place grow and being part of that growth and growing with you as the coffee club individually and, yeah, this is a very, very exciting partnership. So.
[00:58:07] Speaker C: Well, thank you both so much and I'm so happy to meet you. Allison and Laura Best. I feel like we just clicked and I'm so happy.
Here we are, the two.
[00:58:20] Speaker A: The two months that we've known each other has been the longest, most beautiful 10 years of my life. So.
[00:58:27] Speaker C: Yay. Thank you. Thank you both so much.
[00:58:32] Speaker B: Well, the conversation may be over, but the coffee's still brewing. We hope you enjoyed the time as much as we always do.
[00:58:39] Speaker A: Be sure to like and follow us on Facebook or Instagram. And if you really enjoyed this episode, be sure to pass it along to a friend.
[00:58:46] Speaker B: If you or someone you know has a story you want to share, drop us a DM on one of our social sites. We are constantly on the lookout for our next conversation.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: And let us hear about your favorite coffee shop here in Indiana. We are also always looking for another great cup. Until next time, keep it hot or iced.
