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         Green River House is a community-based rehabilitation and support center serving adults with mental illness. It does not matter how long term or serious your illness has been, we are here to help. There are many aspects to the clubhouse and many ways you can become involved, however, employment is the primary focus at the clubhouse. The clubhouse is a club, and as such, its participants are members, not patients or clients. Our philosophy is that each member, regardless of long or numerous hospitalizations can make a positive contribution to the club and to the community.

         Green River House is a Fountain House Model program. Fountain House was started 50 years ago in New York City by a group of ex-patients and over the years has developed into one of the finest rehabilitation programs in the world. Green River House is one of over 300 Fountain House Model clubhouses in the world. There are four major principles to the clubhouse philosophy:

• The guaranteed right of a place to come

• The guaranteed right to meaningful work

• The guaranteed right to meaningful relationships

• The guaranteed right to a place to return

            There are no failures here, for the chance to try again always exists. Indeed, past difficulties are re-interpreted as learning opportunities that eventually guarantee future success.

            Green River House, like all clubhouses, has three major components. The first is the pre-vocational day program, where each member starts his or her participation at the club. The second component is our employment program. There are three avenues to employment at GRH and these will be explained later. The final component to the clubhouse is our social program. Lets take a longer look at each of these parts to a full clubhouse community.

              The pre-vocational day program gives the members a chance to work side by side with the staff in the necessary work of the club. Doing the work of the club, members develop their talents and strengths. As staff and members work together, they get to know each other better and meaningful relationships develop.

            During the hours of 9:30AM and 4:00PM we consider Green River House a work site. It is what we in the club call the work-ordered day. During the work-ordered day, members have the chance to participate in one of four work units.

  These work units are:

              Expresso Unit – Prepares and serves lunch everyday, menu planning, shopping for groceries, cashiering, baking for snack bar, bookkeeping, lunch cash out, set-up for lunch, inventory. The snack bar and snack bar books and cash out, soda and coffee accounts, social time meal planning and activities planning.

              Member Services – Keeps DMH statistics, keeps club’s records for membership as well as other record keeping and research duties, publishes the clubhouse newsletter, clubhouse receptionist.

              Marketing & Development Unit – Runs the Green River Recycling business which employs eight members, fundraising, grant writing, job development,  employment boards, job searches, goals folders, Ticket to Work,  daily bulletin, tracking salaries, ordering/inventory and MA rehab billing.

              Members and staff work together to perform all of the activities of the work units and the clubhouse. What everyone does is clearly necessary to the operation of the clubhouse. Through working side by side with members, the staff becomes more aware of each member’s vocational and social abilities and potential. The members begin to discover personal abilities and talents that can lead to greater social effectiveness and more meaningful work. The goal of the pre-vocational day program is to establish a foundation of better work habits, enriched social skills and a more hopeful view of the future.

             Successful participation in the pre-vocational day program encourages many members to look forward to paid employment in the community. As I stated earlier there are three avenues to paid employment at Green River House and these are: Transitional employment, Supported employment, and Independent employment. Transitional employment is a work placement in the community at a job that can be from as little as 4 hours up to as many as 20 hours per week. The clubhouse owns these jobs and members are placed in these positions for 6 months to a year. Transitional employment is the most supportive of the member with constant connection with a staff work-site manager from the club. Transitional employment provides a guaranteed opportunity for our members to maintain temporary, entry-level employment and to use such employment to begin to build a resume and move on to supportive or independent employment.

            Supported employment is the next level of employment at the club. In supportive employment the member either finds his or her own job or the club will help the member find a job of their choosing. This is the member’s job and the member will hold that job for as long as he wants. The club will support the member with any problems that they may be having. In both transitional and supported employment, members’ incomes are completely monitored to insure benefits are not lost until members are ready to enter the competitive job market.

            Independent employment is the final pathway in the employment process. When a member pursues a career path, the club will help in any way possible. The club is always available to provide help and assistance. The Marketing and Employment unit is always available to help in any job search, from helping with a resume to job interview practice.

  The clubhouse is open for social drop-in time during the late afternoons, evenings and weekends. This is designed to meet the members’ various needs for companionship and socialization. Members plan activities a month at a time and the club is open 365 days a year, celebrating holidays together as a community. There are trips to various places as well as drop-in time at the club. Social time starts at the end of the work ordered day at 4:00PM. Three evenings a week the club is open until 8:00PM, and the club is open every weekend on Saturday and Sunday, and on holidays from 11:00PM until 3:00PM. Dinner is served on the nights there are no trips and lunch is served on the weekends when it is drop-in. The program enables members to maintain long-term contact with the clubhouse after they have become fully employed. The social program also eases re-entry into the club for a member who has stopped coming to the program for a time. By supplying a full range of support seven days a week, we assist the individual in attaining the maximum integration between leisure time and work life.

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Clinical and Support Options, Inc. is a United Way Partner Agency.

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Last modified October 2008.

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