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In the rural central New York town of Camden, a new “Recovery Cafe” provides shared meals and a productive, safe space for the community.

About an hour northeast of Syracuse, the cafe, hosted at the Camden Life Center, serves those struggling with matters like addiction, grief and loss in the area, according to its mission statement. A needs assessment and program evaluation research project led by Syracuse University professors in social work indicated the need for The Recovery Cafe.

“The Recovery Cafe is meant to serve everybody; it’s an opportunity for people to get together that need support in anything, and being able to do that as a community,” said Jessica Perusse, the center’s founder and director.

The two professors — Kenneth Marfilius, an associate professor of social work at SU, and Xiafei Wang, a former professor of social work — worked with Camden Life Center employees to collect data by meeting individually with clients, along with community partners.

Perusse said she asked Marfilius about working with him to collect data after previously working together at the Health Care for Homeless Veterans Program in the Syracuse VA Medical Center.

The research analyzed adverse childhood experience scores, which measure the effect that childhood trauma has on a person, along with social determinants of health in both non-medical and environmental factors, Perusse said.

The results demonstrated a trend of loneliness and its effect on clients’ mental health, which Perusse said made them come up with the idea for a Recovery Cafe.

With this data, Marfilius and Wang created the cafe’s model: a shared meal followed by a peer-led discussion. Marfilius said it provides “wraparound, holistic services” with a “community, connected atmosphere.”

The center received a three-year grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation in January. With this funding, the Recovery Cafe launched the same month.

“It’s really been an amazing and transformative experience for the Camden community,” Perusse said.

Currently, the cafe runs out of conference rooms at the Camden Life Center. These “recovery circles” meet once a week with two different groups currently running. A typical circle meeting starts with a delicious and nutritious meal, Perusse said.

After the meal, a certified peer support specialist leads a discussion about gratefulness, intentions, goals, struggles and how the group plans to overcome them. The goal is for these groups to be completely peer-led — where Perusse leads one, not as a therapist but as a community member, she said.

“When I’m there, I’m not ‘Jessica Perusse, therapist.’ I am ‘Jessica Perusse, mom, wife, community member,’ and I’m there as a part of that circle, really kind of leaning into that peer idea of support,” she said.

Certified peer support specialist Misty Severs’ journey with the Camden Life Center began about three years ago when she went in for counseling. From there, she started to volunteer at the center’s front desk. When the idea of the Recovery Cafe arose, she was interested in getting involved.

“We have kind of become friends, all of us in the group, which has been just wonderful. They have definitely helped me feel like I belong to something,” Severs, who leads a recovery circle, said.

After 10 months of operation, Camden members have been consistently coming in and really coming together as a community, Perusse said.

Perusse said she’s witnessed the once “isolated” recovery members “come back to life.” She said people who were once nervous in sessions have become more engaged.

With a second round of research in the works, the facilitators have high hopes for the future of the Recovery Cafe. They hope to find a dedicated facility to be open throughout the week with affordable food options.

“It can be replicated, not just across the state, but across the nation,” Marfilius said.

Published on October 6, 2025 at 8:17 pm