Dear Chicago Sangha,
Today, a joint statement was released from the Refuge Recovery Non-Profit and Noah Levine announcing that a settlement has been made in the on-going legal dispute involving the aforementioned parties. In this statement, we have learned that Refuge Recovery will continue to live on as a peer-lead movement under a new non-profit called Refuge Recovery World Services, and in addition, a new peer-lead recovery non-profit called Recovery Dharma Collective has also been created for those who wish to participate in that new organization and divest from Refuge Recovery.
At this time, you may be wondering what will happen to us here in Chicago, and the immediate answer is absolutely nothing; we will continue to operate as Refuge Recovery Chicago and continue our business as usual.
Through this controversy and on-going legal case, our strong and dedicated community has weathered this storm without skipping a beat. We have used our practice to observe the current state of affairs while maintaining a neutral stance as a whole and staying on the middle path. Most importantly, we kept our focus on helping those who are suffering and seeking out help from the suffering of addiction. We have continued to grow our meeting count, created a thriving Intersangha community through teamwork and compromise, and worked hard at creating infrastructure to support better communication and connectivity. You all have come together to create a fun and welcoming environment for the upcoming RefCon5 event next weekend as Chicago hosts our international sangha for this very important conference. All of this, happening in just this past year, is something you all should be very proud about!
We have made choices through this litigation based on what we know instead of speculation on what we think we know, and we have consistently used the lens of getting the message out to help more people to keep us working toward our sangha’s primary purpose. In the coming months we will bring this dialogue regarding the litigation and settlement to our monthly Intersangha meetings to discuss this as a whole, and then ask each individual meeting to then discuss it amongst yourselves there at those business meetings. We look forward to your participation as we move through this.
Below is a list of upcoming Intersangha dates, as well as links to the settlement agreement, as well as the announcement from the Refuge Recovery non-profit.
As always, thank you all for your passion and dedication to our community, and I look forward to us all working together in the coming months to work on the future of the Chicago Sangha!
Metta,
Dan Oliverio, Chicago Intersangha Chair
refugerecoverychicago@gmail.com
—————
Intersangha Meeting Dates (ALL ARE WELCOME)
Sunday July 7, 2019 from 4p-6p at Center on Hasted, Room 200
Sunday August 4, 2019 from 4p-6p at TBD
Sunday September 1, 2019 from 4p-6p at TBD
—————
Joint Statement from RR & Noah Levine – https://refugerecovery.org/joint-statement-july-2019
Statement from Refuge Recovery World Services (Noah’s new organization) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1t2pc-qtcgvzGLYzoFFcslf9t_4u1kCua
Settlement Doc – https://drive.google.com/open…
