Volunteer Spotlight: Van

“Have you seen the show, ‘Cheers’? The Café is kind of like that – everyone knows your name. If I show up in a bad mood, I always leave feeling better.”

Van spent years exploring different careers to discover her calling – entrepreneurship, caregiving, and even serving meals as a lunch lady. Throughout her various career paths and parenthood, she found a consistent theme: she loved helping people. When she returned to school to get a license in clinical mental health work, purpose and passion began to align.

It was around this time that she found Recovery Café, too. “All these things started to feed into each other, forming a path,” she shared. Van started volunteering at the Café with her husband, Eric, in 2020, both as a Café Cook and an Ambassador of Hospitality.

With prior experience as a volunteer with organizations like the Alzheimer’s Association and the Longmont Senior Center, she came into her role at RCL well prepared to provide support to those facing difficult life situations – what she didn’t know then was that her volunteering work would support her professional life, too.

A Place to Learn, a Space to Grow

As a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), Van brings a level of professional know-how to her work as an Ambassador. After recognizing the frequency of co-occurrence in substance-use disorder and mental health issues, both in the Café and among her clients, Van began pursuing a license in Addiction Counseling; “I wanted to learn to treat these things more holistically and grow my own competence as a counselor.”

In volunteering at the Café, Van is earning her hours with real-world experience. “I love the connection and openness here – the lack of judgment among this community destigmatizes so many things,” she said, “The Café is a place where people can feel dignified, respected, and accepted. They are given the support they need to rediscover themselves, and you can’t do that alone.”

Quick-witted, sassy, and smart, Van brings energy and thought-provoking conversation to the Café. She leads TED Talk-Thursdays, one of our School for Recovery programs, covering timely subjects and incorporating current pop-culture references to make it fun for our members. A self-proclaimed lifelong learner, Van also nurtures her mind by reading memoirs, listening to podcasts, and discovering new hobbies like pickleball and tennis.

“I realize I am lucky; I’m in a position where I can do something to help people – why shouldn’t I?”