Contra Costa Clubhouses, Inc.

Contra Costa Clubhouses, Inc.

3024 Willow Pass Road, Suite 230
Concord, CA 94519
(925) 691-4276

In partnership with NAMI Contra Costa

The Contra Costa Clubhouse Project was created to afford people living with mental illness the opportunity to recover meaningful and productive lives through reintegration with the workplace and the community. To read about what is new with the Clubhouse, please download The Contra Costa Clubhouse Chronicles.

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Persistent mental Illness is a devastating disruption to a person's life that separates and isolates them from typical daily activities. Approximately 7% of the population lives with mental illness at some time during their life. In Contra Costa County alone, 10,000 people seek treatment annually for a severe mental illness. The services currently available in our county are inadequate to meet their needs. Existing programs are under funded and focus on temporary treatment instead of offering an ongoing recovery process. That's why a group of concerned family members and friends started The Contra Costa Clubhouses, Inc.

Our social and vocational program follows the proven model of the International Center for Clubhouse Development (ICCD) at www.iccd.org. The first clubhouse program in Contra Costa County will providing people living with the effects of mental illness a low-cost option for gaining respect, hope, and unlimited opportunity to access the same world of friendship, housing, education, and employment as the rest of the community.

A Clubhouse is a membership-based community where people living with persistent mental illness come to rebuild their lives. Participants - who are called members, not patients - share ownership and responsibility for the success of the organization. They work in a unique partnership with a small staff, building on strengths instead of focusing on illness. The Clubhouse provides an accepting place to spend the day, valuable work to perform within the organization, opportunities to socialize with friends and co-workers, and access to employment within the wider community. Membership is for life and provides ongoing support.

The Contra Costa Clubhouses, Inc. believes that that every member can sufficiently recover from the effects of mental illness to lead a personally satisfying and productive life. The Clubhouse is a community of people dedicated to one another's success. Recovery is achieved in the Clubhouse through work and work-mediated relationships, which are proven to be restorative and provide a firm foundation for growth, self-respect, and individual achievement. The clubhouse model has been implemented in more than 400 communities in 28 countries since its inception in 1948 and has proven successful with rehabilitation, recovery, and reintegration into the community.

The International Center for Clubhouse Development (ICCD) is a global network that promotes the development and success of clubhouses through its training and certification programs. Founded in 1994, ICCD promotes the development of clubhouses throughout the world and provides a set of clubhouse standards, a well-documented training process, and certification for clubhouses. The Contra Costa Clubhouses, Inc. is a member of the ICCD network and it is working toward ICCD certification.

Contra Costa Clubhouse opened in February 2008 and currently serves more than 60 members. We intend to expand to an active membership of approximately 150. Membership is voluntary, long term, and open to anyone living with persistent mental illness who meets the Clubhouse membership criteria. The Clubhouse is located near downtown Concord, close to BART and other public transportation. Although in an office building, our space is home-like and comfortable, conveying a sense of respect and dignity. The clubhouse has a reception area, office/administrative area, conference room, kitchen and dining area, snack shop and flower arrangement area. All areas are open to members and staff.

The work of running the Clubhouse is performed by members in collaboration with a small staff. All programs and activities are operated by members and staff working together, taking advantage of their unique talents and skills. The activities - which provide work for the members and services to the members - are centered around doing the tasks needed to run the clubhouse (cooking, clerical, fund-raising, etc.), paid outside employment through a variety of structured programs, social and recreational activities on evenings and weekends, educational opportunities, community support, reach-out to other members, and participating in the governance of the Clubhouse. Please click here for more detailed information about components of a clubhouse.

Documented research on existing ICCD clubhouses indicates that members and their communities benefit from higher employment rates, a decrease in hospitalization, reduced incarceration, improved well-being, and reduced cost of services in comparison to other programs. The Contra Costa Clubhouse expects to achieve similar outcomes. For more about benefits, please click here.