CeDAR is invested in the enduring recovery of every individual we care for. We believe sustained recovery is hinged on community—a community where every alumni member feels safe, supported, and valued. CeDAR’s Alumni Program provides such a community for all those who have completed one of CeDAR’s programs—IRT (Intensive Residential Treatment), PHP (Partial Hospitalization Program), and IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program). CeDAR Alumni have lifetime access to a variety of services through their participation in the program. Services include individual outreach, a weekly alumni meeting, a weekly alumni support group, individual 1:1’s called Coffee Talk, service-work opportunities, sober social activities, personal development workshops, and more.

Alumni Meetings – A place to return to

Alumni meetings are held weekly on Thursday evening at 7 pm and are exclusive to CeDAR Alumni. We are now offering an in-person alumni meeting, held at CeDAR, in conjunction with the standing virtual meeting held on Zoom. The alumni meeting is an all-recovery meeting with 12-step influences, as evident by our tradition of handing out chips to signify various amounts of sobriety time. All pathways to recovery are welcome! There are a variety of service positions available to support the alumni meetings from meeting lead to room set-up and grounding exercise reader. We encourage you to get involved! Please note, if attending any in-person meeting at CeDAR, masking, and distancing remains a guideline.

  • Ice Cream Social: Every second Thursday of the month, we venture to an after-meeting ice cream social at Sweet Cow in the Stanley Marketplace. This is a great way to get to know other CeDAR alumni outside the context of a meeting. Family, kiddos, and dogs are welcome! Currently virtual.
  • After-Hours Alumni Meeting:  On the third Thursday of every month, we hold a business meeting, which we call After Hours, meeting following the alumni meeting. This is an ideal way to become a homegroup member, gain a service position, and help to plan activities.
  • Milestone Night: The last Thursday of the month is Milestone Night—an opportunity to celebrate the wins in recovery, large and small. Celebrating wins is positive reinforcement to keep trudging ahead.

CeDAR’s Alumni Recovery Community Events

  • Sober social: encourages connection, community, and fun. Social events can include but are not limited to outdoor recreation, sporting games, art and crafts, concerts, and bowling. We often partner with local recovery organizations such as Sober AF and The Phoenix.
  • Service: encourages involvement both within CeDAR and the broader community. In-house engagements include participation on speaker panels, assistance with recovery meetings, and support with a variety of alumni-led projects. Formal volunteer positions are also available at CeDAR through the University of Colorado Hospital’s volunteer program. CeDAR Gives Back Day is an opportunity for our alumni to extend a helping hand to local organizations and non-profits.
  • Personal development: encourages ongoing learning and growth in the eight primary dimensions of wellness. These events can include workshops, retreats, lectures, and seminars. We collaborate with vetted professionals within the recovery community, who have the ability and credentials to lead such events. 

Staying Connected

We offer a private Facebook group for CeDAR alumni. The group offers a content-rich platform for you to be able to stay current on CeDAR news and activities, as well as recovery-related happenings in the broader community. A variety of articles, podcasts, meditations, events and even some funny recovery memes are posted. You are encouraged to interact with the group through liking, commenting, and posting recovery-related content, including sobriety birthdays and milestones. 

Alumni Meetings

Join us for a weekly CeDAR alumni meeting held every Thursday at 7 p.m. Each week, a new alumni chairperson chooses the recovery topic for discussion. This meeting is exclusively for CeDAR alumni and supportive family members.

Every second Thursday of the month, CeDAR alumni services hosts an after-meeting social. We get together following the CeDAR alumni meeting for ice cream, coffee, or some other tasty treat at a local restaurant. This is a great way to get to know other CeDAR alumni outside the context of a meeting. It also helps us support Denver small businesses.

After-Hours Alumni Meeting

On the third Thursday of every month, we offer an after-hours meeting following the CeDAR alumni meeting. Join us for this monthly business meeting to discuss all things related to CeDAR alumni events. This is a great platform to get a service position for the meeting or to offer feedback and suggestions.

Milestone Night

The last Thursday of the month is Milestone Night! Our alumni community comes together to celebrate milestones during this meeting and talk about what is going well in recovery. Milestones can range from getting a new job, celebrating a sobriety birthday, or successfully using a coping skill. Family and staff are welcome. Light refreshments are served.

CeDAR Central

CeDAR Central – CeDAR Colorado Alumni

Recently launched is CeDAR Central—a website that centralizes all of the information you need to stay connected. We understand it can be challenging to stay current with ever-changing information so our aim in creating CeDAR Central was to remove the burden of you having to track information. CeDAR Central organizes and updates information so you don’t have to, allowing you to more efficiently stay connected and engage your recovery. It is recommended you bookmark this page and routinely check it.

Community Recovery Meetings

For a current calendar of all recovery meetings considered “in-house” to CeDAR, virtual and in-person, please download our Community Meetings document. Please note, all in-person meetings have been suspended until further notice due to an increase in COVID-19 positivity rates.

CeDAR Connects Alumni Newsletter

We launched an alumni newsletter, CeDAR Connects, in June ’21. The monthly newsletter aims to keep our community up-to-date on programming and projects you can get involved with, as well as features and an alumni spotlight and recovery resource features. View archived newsletters here: Newsletter Archives – CeDAR Colorado Alumni

Through the Trees Podcast

To gain a deeper sense of CeDAR’s Alumni Program, check out Episode 23: Cultivating a Recovery Community from a podcast, Through the Trees, which was created and hosted by CeDAR psychiatrist, Patrick Fehling. .