Open to any adult with a mental health diagnosis, the Clubhouse is a service of Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley and costs its members only $1 a day! It’s open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on some holidays.
You’ve probably passed the 4,200-square-foot facility, located right next to the Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley Community Service Center in downtown Dayton. The complex includes meeting rooms, a full-service kitchen, educational and job resources and an urban garden. Produce harvested from the garden serves as ingredients for healthy lunches planned and served by members and staff.
How it works
At the heart of the Clubhouse model is the belief that work and relationships are rehabilitative. “In the Clubhouse, members are needed, belong and engage in all aspects of the program’s operation,” according to program coordinator Kathy Trick. " Through this work, skills and relationships are developed which lead to recovery and increased self-sufficiency, employment and socialization in the broader community.”
Trick says thanks to the local Miracle Clubhouse, its counterpart in Cleveland, and state funding, the Clubhouse movement is gaining ground in Ohio and neighboring states. There are now seven start-up Ohio Clubhouses; interested groups in Kentucky also have visited Dayton’s Clubhouse to see about starting their own programs.
“It has been great to help advocate for additional funding through the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for new Clubhouses,” Trick says. “The Clubhouse model is becoming more recognized as something that truly works, and it’s been incredible to meet these organizations that are starting up new Clubhouses in our state. This is an evidence-based model of rehabilitation with proven success rates. It lowers rates of hospitalization and incarceration, thus saving taxpayer dollars and improving people’s lives.”
Trick says it has been especially exciting for their members to know what they’re doing in Dayton is being replicated across the state. “I think they see the bigger picture, that it is truly an international model with hundreds of Clubhouses that help eliminate the stigma – that mental illness can happen to anybody, anywhere, and recovery is possible.”
Trick has served as program coordinator since the Clubhouse was launched in 2012. A new Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley West Campus Community Services Center in Trotwood has just opened and includes some behavior health including case management, and therapy. Additionally, there is a new after-school program in Trotwood for teens called “The A.L.L. Club.”
During her tenure, Trick said she has seen progress and increased efforts by the Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board and other organizations to boost and coordinate services so area individuals living with mental health challenges are better served.
Here’s what they can use:
• Snack food for the snack bar (including granola bars, chips, crackers, peanuts)
• Cooking supplies (olive oil, butter, condiments, salad dressing, gallon Ziploc bags)
• Office supplies (tape, pens, dry erase markers, notebooks, paper clips, etc.)
• Personal hygiene products
Donations may be dropped off from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at 243 Warren St., Dayton.
Other ways to help:
A fundraising luncheon, , “We Are Mental Wellness 2023,” will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on Thursday, May 18 at Dayton’s Carillon Historical Park. The event, sponsored by Ferguson Construction, WHIO-TV and K99.1 FM, will feature remarks by world known mental health speaker Mike Veny, an online auction sponsored by Gary and Rachel Auman, and a Clubhouse member presentation.
Individual tickets cost $50 and are available at https://gesmv.org. Donations may also be made online.
For more information, see www.gesmv.org or call MC coordinator Kathy Trick at 937-262·7983 or k.trick@gesmv.org. On Facebook: www.facebook.com/miracleclubhouse
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Meredith Moss writes about Dayton-area nonprofit organizations and their specific needs. If your group has a wish list it would like to share with our readers, contact Meredith: meredith.moss@coxinc.com.
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