Calico Recovery exists because the alternatives weren't safe. We're building encrypted peer support, privacy-first mental health tools, and open-source resources for people who deserve better.
Not a pitch deck. Not a business plan. A person who went looking for help and found something that made the world feel smaller and darker.
The catalyst was an advertisement. Targeted, algorithmic, and precisely aimed at someone with a mental health history browsing for recovery resources. The ad led to a community that presented itself as a safe space, a place where people could discuss the hardest parts of their lives without fear.
What was found instead was something predatory. A space that made things worse. That experience raised a question that wouldn't go away: why isn't there a place that actually does what that site claimed to do?
A place where adults can speak honestly about what they're going through, without losing their privacy as a consequence. Without being handed something harmful. Without needing to trust a corporation with the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
So we're building it. Tools where your autonomy is real, your data stays yours, and the help is genuine. It's slow work, done carefully, by a small team. We're not promising timelines. We're promising honesty.
Each project is designed around a simple principle: your data is yours, your recovery is yours, and no one should profit from either.