Recovery Café expands to 10 counties, rebranded as 'The Hive'
Lafayette-based nonprofit picks up regional, peer-to-peer recovery assignment. Plus, did Jennifer Rae Teising cite fake, misleading AI-generated cases in defamation lawsuit? Wabash Township says yes.
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RECOVERY CAFÉ REBRANDED AND EXPANDED AS ‘THE HIVE’
Recovery Café, a peer counseling and recovery organization in Lafayette, will expand to cover 10 counties and will be known as The Hive Recovery Hub going forward, leaders of the nonprofit announced Friday.
A new look, new name and expanded regional focus won’t change the fundamentals of remaining a place with a “stubborn belief that everyone deserves a place to heal,” Lindsey Willis, executive director of The Hive, said.
“We never cared why they came in,” Willis said about a program that opened in 2019 in a rented space in the Bauer Community Center and later bought and moved into a former pediatrician’s offices at 23rd and Ferry streets in 2023.
“We were just glad they walked in,” Willis said. “We have stood on love from day one, and that has been the most radical form of revolution against despair I have ever been a part of.”
The rebranding and new alignment were unveiled Friday at Duncan Hall, during a fundraising brunch dubbed “a new chapter.” Peppered throughout an hourlong ceremony were words of support from Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski and West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter, as well as testimony by clients who told how Recovery Café had been a home base for their recovery stories.
The adjusted direction started with the state Division of Mental Health and Addiction asking Recovery Café to move from a membership-type model it had used for its services to a recovery hub model, Adam Murphy, board president of the organization, said.
He said the ask – to essentially be available for anyone looking for recovery support for addictions or other needs to walk through the doors and be welcomed – was something Recovery Café was doing already with what were known as peer-led recovery circles, powered by those with lived experience.
Murphy said that over the past nine months, that approach led to growth from 150 members of Recovery Café to 383 people checking in monthly for meals, social events and peer-facilitated groups.
“We’re doing more peer recovery work and more peer one-on-ones than ever before,” Murphy, whose day job is community advocate and resource navigator for the Lafayette Police Department, said. “The key here is that the state wants there to be peers available in every county. By having the regional recovery hubs, you can do that.”
The Hive will be one of 10 recovery hubs in the state, covering Tippecanoe County, the surrounding seven counties, along with Boone and Hendricks counties.
Murphy said that wouldn’t mean a brick-and-mortar location for The Hive in the 10 counties. Instead, he said, it would be connecting with community organizations in those counties – whether tied to the justice system, opioid treatment programs, domestic violence survivor organizations, medication assisted recovery providers or others – or sending staff members to food distribution sites or other events.
“That network is being built as we speak,” Willis said. “We kind of act as a knowledge base. It’s not just about the peer support, but it is about different organizations having a fixed place to reach out so they know where to send someone who need to detox off methadone or whatever the situation is. We’ll work to grow our library of knowledge and all of those different resources so we can make sure we have answers for those that don’t.”
Willis said the new name and branding were intentional, highlighting a community aspect of work of recovery, the hexagons of a bee hive representing strength and safe spaces.
“We’re working together in harmony, each with a role, each with a purpose, each contributing to the health of a whole,” Willis said. “That’s what we have been building here – a hive of healing, a hive of empowerment, of life, of strength, a hive where recovery is not the exception, but it is the expectation.”
For more: The Hive, 2300 Ferry St. in Lafayette, is open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday, except noon-8 p.m. Wednesday. More is available at The Hive’s Facebook page.
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REPRESENTING HERSELF, FORMER TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE ACCUSED OF RELYING ON AI, CITING FAKE CASES IN HER DEFAMATION CASE
Attorneys trying to knock back Jennifer Rae Teising’s claims that she was defamed by Wabash Township officials and deserves as much as $820,000 in backpay and damages provided another wrinkle Monday in the case brought by the former township trustee.
They filed documents in Tippecanoe Circuit Court accusing Teising – left to represent herself after her attorney bailed – of including false cases and failing to verify the content of others in a recent filing.
In a pair of motions filed Monday, Ryan Sterling, attorney representing Wabash Township and a number of township officials past and present, argued that it appears Teising used artificial intelligence tools to pull together legal arguments ahead of a hearing this week on the township’s motion to dismiss.
In it, Sterling argued that Teising, even though she’s representing herself, should be sanctioned and fined for breaking rules that cover any other attorney.
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