At the beginning of the month, the Recovery Café Longmont, an organization that helps adults rebuild their lives and break the cycle of addiction, recently brought on board its newest team member and one of two peer support specialists who will work to make recovery support accessible to Latinx and monolingual Spanish-speaking community members.
A two-year grant from the Colorado Health Foundation will fund the hiring of the organization's first bilingual and bicultural peer support specialist, said Lisa Searchinger, Recover Café executive director. The position will help the organization better reflect and address the cultural diversity of Longmont, she said.
“In 2019, only 15% of our member base identified themselves as Latino, and we know that Longmont has a 25% Latinx population… we knew there was a gap and this was without targeted outreach. Now we can do more targeted outreach, flyers in English and Spanish, we can go out to the community, and have meetings and host gatherings in the café, Spanish-language gatherings,” Searchinger said.
The work to be done goes well beyond access to materials and support in Spanish. The new program will ensure that Latinx and monolingual Spanish-speaking members feel comfortable in seeking and receiving services.
“We will start integrating Latinx games and foods, will be reaching out to local churches to get the word out there to let the Latinx community know that Recovery Café is here for everyone,” said Felicia Perez-Wright, the nonprofit’s new bilingual peer support specialist, who understands firsthand why this approach is so important.
“I struggled with substance use … I lost my kids and lost almost everything, and had to start over from the ground up. The peer support that I worked with played a huge role,” she said. “Being able to work with somebody else who understood what I was dealing with, through her own life experience was a game changer.”
While the Recovery Café has been providing services for over a year, board and staff members since early on have been pushing to expand its scope, which includes involving more community members in its efforts, said Hilda Zamora Hursh, a board member for the nonprofit and a bilingual counselor for the Longmont Children, Youth, and Families Department.
Recovery Café member, Andy, tries to guess what country he is during a lively (and socially distanced) game of "Heads Up." (Photo courtesy of Recovery Café)“We are recruiting volunteers that are Spanish-speaking, we can't do what we do without our volunteers. Felicia is one person and we have two Latinas on the board now but it's not enough. We need the community to pull together.”
While social gathering and distancing restrictions in place because of the coronavirus pandemic present challenges to engaging and reaching out to members of the community, Recovery Café has already begun connecting with local churches, shops and restaurants and will create a Spanish-language Facebook page to help spread the word, according to Perez-Wright.
Starting Oct. 1, Recovery Café will expand its limited hours and will be open from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, and noon to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and Saturday. Once COVID-related restrictions are lifted, it will resume operations five days a week.
“I think that bringing in volunteers and more members, and really trying to reach out to everyone that we can is gonna open things up. (We want) members out there feel more comfortable and more welcome to be able to come in and be vulnerable, hear their stories and get their healing process started,” Perez-Wright said.
For more information on Recovery Café and its hours, click here. To speak with Perez-Wright regarding bilingual support or volunteer opportunities, call 719-966-7639 or email [email protected].
