1985 – Recovery Café’s Co Founder Killian Noe, alongside David Erickson, started Samaritan Inns in Washington, D.C.

1999 – Killian moved with her husband and two children to Seattle. Eager to learn about the needs of Seattle’s people and how the city responds to- those needs, Killian visited a wide variety of non-profit agencies in Seattle and saw that programs often lacked the ability to provide adequate recovery support.

1999 – Killian, along with Randall Mullins, started the New Creation Community, an ecumenical faith community committed to contemplation and action.

1999-2002 – New Creation Community members Ruby Takushi, Mary Crow, Angie Wolle, and Cecilia McKean joined Killian in meeting weekly to pray, dream, and envision a response to the needs of those traumatized by homelessness, addiction, and other mental health challenges. Emmy Neilson was the first to invest financially in the dream.

2003 – Recovery Café was founded as a direct response to the critical, unmet need for those who suffer on the margins – that of long-term recovery support.

2016 – Recovery Café launches the Recovery Café Network, our model replication effort, helping groups in San Jose, CA and Everett, WA to begin their own Recovery Cafés.

Since 2016 the Recovery Café Network has grown to 39 Cafes across the United States and Canada.

2017 – During the Spring of 2017 the idyllic rural mountain community of the Orting Valley, WA was hit by a series of fatal overdoses. The problem of addiction had been acute in the Orting Valley for a long time, but this became the wake up call to the community that addiction and its destruction affects us all. It was also a cry for help from the community. There was an outpouring of concern to find an effective way that we could provide support for people wrestling with addiction. Clearly despite millions and millions of dollars being spent each year, too many are still dying from overdose deaths. So after decades of losing lives to this epidemic this community came together acknowledging we can and must do more.

In the eye of this storm the local United Methodist Church Pastor, Dennis Paschke stepped in to pull together and shepherd a team that would create the change everyone longed for and that was deeply needed. This community effort meant bringing together schools, police, citizens, government officials, concerned parents and local motorcycle clubs. If lasting change was to take place something new and effective had to happen. Recovery Café was the way forward, and from these roots it came into existence. It was time for the change that could provide evidence based hope, healing and transformation for folks wrestling with addiction. Recovery Café Orting Valley was formed to do just that. Today the Recovery Café Orting Valley has outgrown its space and is looking to expand into the Puyallup, WA area.

2019 – Dennis Paschke and his wife Dawn moved to Phoenix area. Dennis soon realized that there was a similar gap in care for people wrestling with addiction and trauma and that Recovery Café in Arizona could help over 700,000 lives (NIH). After consulting with several respected professional behavioral health clinicians in the Valley, Dennis committed to bringing Recovery Café to Arizona.

One of the first organizations to embrace the reality of Recovery Café and the much needed good it would provide for Arizona, was The Praise and Worship Center in Chandler, AZ. They are a deeply committed faith community that has had an impact on the Valley for many years. A core team was formed in December 2021 and together they have been working to realize the dream of Recovery Café in Arizona.

Grand Opening of Recovery Café Arizona – December 2, 2022!

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