Recovery Cafe pop-ups build community in Washougal, Gorge

The group gathered inside St. Anne’s Episcopal Church on this sunny July morning are quietly working on art projects, chatting with each other about their lives and giving special attention to Toby, a friendly, long-eared pup who is a regular at these Monday gatherings inside the Washougal church.

Many members of the group are currently seeking permanent housing. Some live in their vehicles behind St. Anne’s as members of the church’s Safe Park program, which gives car campers a safe, secure spot to park their vehicles between the hours of 4 p.m. and 9 a.m. All are in various stages of recovery from drugs or alcohol, and everyone, it seems, relies on this small community to support each other and provide comfort when life seems overwhelming.

“Having this connection with other people who know what you’re going through is very important,” Desarae Hayes, a 1997 Washougal High School graduate and employee of the Recovery Cafe of Southwest Washington, explains.

Hayes understands what the folks who come to these Recovery Cafe “pop up” sessions in Washougal, Goldendale, Stevenson and White Salmon are experiencing, and said the Recovery Cafe model has helped with her own addiction recovery journey.

“There are things people may not feel comfortable talking about with someone who doesn’t understand what they’re going through,” Hayes says, adding that the Recovery Cafe model, which operates under six guiding principles — connecting with the divine love in ourselves and others; cultivating compassion; showing respect; practicing forgiveness; encouraging growth; and giving back — provides a safe, nonjudgmental space for people in recovery as well as a warm lunch, connection to the greater community and resources for people who may also be experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, trauma and mental health challenges.

Jodene Stonebarger, who manages the five Recovery Cafe pop ups that provide needed resources to communities in Washougal, Stevenson, Goldendale and White Salmon, says the Recovery Cafe model made a world of difference in her life.

About six years ago, Stonebarger says, she was in the throes of addiction and had “hit rock bottom for the last time.” When she discovered the Recovery Cafe in Vancouver, she knew she’d found a community of people who understood what she was going through.

“They didn’t judge me,” Stonebarger says. “They offered support.”

Once she had turned her own life around, Stonebarger wanted to give back. She volunteered for Recovery Cafe, fielding phone calls from others seeking sobriety, and went through the program’s peer-coaching program. Then, she was offered a job as the manager of the pop-up Recovery Cafe sessions that take place at least once a week in Washougal and other rural communities throughout the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge.

“I’m 62, and I’m finally happy,” Stonebarger says. “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Through her work with the Recovery Cafe pop ups, Stonebarger is helping others find that same level of happiness and contentment.

At a recent Monday morning Recovery Cafe inside St. Anne’s church in Washougal, about a dozen participants enjoyed each other’s company while discussing their goals, challenges and barriers to remaining sober.

Most of the people who agreed to speak with The Post-Record about their journey through recovery credited one thing for their continued sobriety: the community they’d found at the Recovery Cafe.

“Having this community makes me feel safer,” said Karen Fetroew. “We look out for each other.”

Fetroew, along with fellow Recovery Cafe participants Marci Chapman and Mike Stoll, live in their vehicles and are part of St. Anne’s Safe Stay car-camping program, which seeks to help people who are unhoused have a safe place to stay overnight and also brings in resources, such as the Recovery Cafe, to help them find permanent housing.

The three Safe Stay campers say housing costs in the Camas-Washougal area are the biggest barrier to finding permanent shelter. Chapman, who recently underwent open-heart surgery, supports herself and Stoll, who suffers from seizures, on $950 a month. The couple are both in their early 50s, but with health issues that prevent them from finding full-time employment, they rely on Chapman’s monthly disability income — and on the services provided at St. Anne’s and other local nonprofits, such as the Salvation Army in Washougal — to survive. Though the couple grew up in Springfield, Oregon, Chapman moved to the Washougal area nearly three decades ago to be near family, and Stoll joined her about eight years ago. They have been challenged to find affordable housing in the area, but stay because the couple has ties to Camas-Washougal — including Chapman’s four grown children — that make it hard to imagine living anywhere else.

Fetroew, a domestic violence survivor who moved to the Washougal area from New Mexico, says she has found community in the Safe Stay and Recovery Cafe programs. She credits that community, as well as the six small dogs she lives with in her van, as the key to her continued sobriety.

“My dogs are what keep me clean,” Fetroew says, noting that a friend who has an air-conditioned home has offered to watch her dogs during the recent heat wave to help keep them safe from overheating in Fetroew’s van.

Making these types of connections and finding resources that can help someone stay sober, find employment and maintain permanent housing is a key part of what the Recovery Cafe strives to do, Stonebarger says.

In 2022, Stonebarger told The Post-Record that the pop-up Recovery Cafes provide invaluable resources, advocacy, education, evaluation and facilitation to people in need.

“We want to get recovery out there into communities like Washougal and Camas that really don’t have any options for people that are going through addiction and mental health issues,” Stonebarger explained. “If you make a connection, you don’t feel alone. When you’re out there on the street, you think people don’t care and you have no direction. To come to a place where you’re welcomed and you start feeling a part of it, it makes a big difference.”