When you walk into Recovery Cafe Muncie, you'll see a few things.
You'll see a warm, welcoming environment with a deeply connected community. You'll see folks sitting around tables, drinking coffee or eating lunch while sharing stories. Those folks you see are in various stages of their recovery journeys, and they're working together to help everyone who passes through the cafe's doors.
Another thing you'll see is a glass case with a football inside, one which bears the logos of the Colts and Kicking The Stigma. That simple football carries a deep message, though: Mental health touches everyone, no matter how tough your facade may be.
"I think it got the more rugged folks to soften up a little," Lisa Roossien, the executive director of Recovery Cafe Muncie, said. "Okay, if the Colts are in on this, then maybe this is cool."
The Colts and Kicking The Stigma, though, did more than just toss a football in a display case. Through a Kicking The Stigma action grant, Recovery Cafe Muncie added a critical component to their ecosystem: The MEND (Motivate, Empower, Navigate, Discover) Program, which provides peer-to-peer recovery services.
The Kicking The Stigma action grant has funded the requisite training – about $1,000 per person – for over a dozen members of the Recovery Cafe Muncie community to become peer recovery coaches. The MEND Program's recovery coaches, then, can "use their history of past experiences and past mistakes and flip those around into assets to help the next person," Roossien said. Recovery coaches have individual one-on-one meetings with MEND Program participants for a minimum of three months.
Those recovery coaches are also paid for their work.
"The really cool thing that Kicking The Stigma allowed us to do is not only train individuals to help the next person, but they're also compensated for their time, which is like, whoa – 'You're gonna pay me to share my story?'" Roossien said. "I think it really sends a message to how valuable that experience is and it really flips the script. Like, I'm this nobody, I've done nothing but make mistakes – oh, wait, all of those mistakes aren't for nothing. I can use that to save someone's life."
To become a peer recovery coach, an individual needs one year of sustained recovery. Through that year, that person will advance through several levels of the Recovery Cafe Muncie community.
First, they'll be a cafe companion, welcoming people to the cafe and offering tours. Then, after two months, they can become a member leader, which includes responsibilities like running the pantry and serving food. After six months of being a member leader, they can be promoted to a senior member leader – at which point they can receive peer recovery coach training.
And an emphasis of Recovery Cafe Muncie is providing people a loving, compassionate and respectful community – a community which will unequivocally support its members through recovery.
"It's a lot of firsts for people," Roossien said." Like, 'Oh, I was able to attend a crowded event without substances. I didn't know I could do that. I think I might be able to do that again.'
"… The biggest thing that we've seen on a consistent basis is people get to belong to something. The individuals that we serve tend to disconnect from society – they're kind of pushed aside and they don't belong to something that's productive and could enhance their life.
"And so they can come to the cafe – they're welcomed wherever they are in life. We're not expecting a sober and well-rounded person when they first come in. We meet them where they're at and they're welcomed, they're loved just how they are, and if they're interested we have the tools and resources there to connect them to growth and healing and take on bigger roles in the cafe, taking on ownership so they don't just belong but they can be a part of it. And that feeling is a privilege not a lot of individuals get to experience."
In 2024, 34 people participated in the MEND Program. And with the Colts' support, the program – and Recovery Cafe Muncie's ability to reach more people – will only continue to grow.
"People are so proud to be recognized by such a well-known organization," Roossien said. 'The Colts? Little old us in Muncie, the Colts want to support us?' It really legitimizes the whole program."
