him. It keeps him from drugs and gives him confidence, support and a paycheck. To the relief of Thissell-Armstrong, Carson’s drug-test numbers have improved and he’s on his way to that paycheck bonus. “It helps that everybody I work with is going through the same thing,” Carson says. “We’re all addicts. When I come into work, I don’t feel like I’m being judged by a bunch of people. I’m comfortable being here.” It’s hard to move back home after living on your own. It’s hard to make new friends and put old habits behind you. It’s hard dealing with anxiety and shame and grief all by yourself. Recovery is hard work, and it never stops. Carson would like it if his dad one day visited the cafe, so he could see how his son’s doing. “I’m comfortable here,” he says. “This is the best job I’ve ever had.” events like weddings and births. She didn’t like the future she saw for herself. “It suddenly hit me that I was about to become one of these people,” she says. “I lost my daughter to [Child Protective Services] twice, and I was getting to the point where it wasn’t going to be the state making the decision; my daughter was going to start choosing to not have me in her life.” Change can happen remarkably fast when a person starts making the right choices, she says. Thissell-Armstrong credits Symmetry Care with helping her achieve a different life. At 42 she’s been sober now for two years and was recently certified as an addiction- recovery mentor. She’s also the property manager at the sober-apartment fourplex, where she lives with her daughter, offering regular supervision and an understanding ear. Thissell-Armstrong’s willingness to discuss her own addiction and hardship is infectious, co-workers say. It helps them express their vulnerability and share their own struggles. One employee confided things in the kitchen he’d only ever shared with his spouse. “Chelan has turned around and become an amazing mentor to others in recovery,” Radinovich says. “I can overhear the conversations she facilitates that create so much camaraderie back in the kitchen.” Thissell-Armstrong is still adjusting to the weight of a leadership role. “This is a crew of people that looks to me for answers, even though I don’t always feel like I have them,” she says. One employee who’s gotten under her skin is Joe Carson. Given his impressive progress since joining the program, it hurt her when he no-showed two days in June. She knows it hurt him, too. “I think he genuinely wants something different,” she says. “I have a lot of faith in him.” In a small town, people know you by your name and by your face, and bad news about you travels fast. Shame can weigh down people in recovery and without support and a safe place to go, it can overwhelm. Carson, 30, moved back to his hometown of Burns in 2016, and he was on his way to running his own floor-installation business until a friend introduced him to meth. He took up fentanyl around 2022, and after his best friend died of an overdose, he fell in even deeper. Even in Burns, meth and fentanyl are distressingly easy to find. “It just helped me forget about everything, you know, for the time being,” Carson says. But since enrolling in Symmetry Care, he’s connected with a therapist and gotten a prescription to help deal with his anxiety. Once a month, he gets a shot in his stomach of a time-release drug that helps ease his fentanyl cravings. He says working at Fresh Start has been one of the best things that’s ever happened to “It helps that everybody I work with is going through the same thing.” JOE CARSON, FRESH START CAFE EMPLOYEE Chelan Thissell-Armstrong and Joe Carson share kitchen duties Joe Carson consults the lunch menu. Bridget Teeman, a Symmetry Care client, works at the cafe counter. 31
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