ABOUT GUESTS:
Webb Lucas
Fresh Start Clubhouse
/
freshstartclubhouse.org
Fresh Start Clubhouse Executive Director Webb Lucas.
“My work at Fresh Start Clubhouse is founded on the ability to build trusting relationships, foster collaboration, lead with transparency and vulnerability, empowering those around me to recognize their strengths. My background as a second-career Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, informs my unique blend of clinical expertise and executive management, and a dedication to being of service. I strive to advocate, coach, and mentor so that those who are disempowered by stigma can seize opportunities and meet their potential. Throughout my journey, whether during volunteer work for American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), or experiences at home, or at work, I see a common thread everywhere that is the need to have a place to feel belonging, feel needed, and to feel wanted.”
Dan Seng
Dan Seng of Fresh Start Clubhouse.
“I am a new member at Fresh Start Clubhouse and I am learning the standards and ways to help members of the clubhouse to best help them on the road of recovery and the daily lives of dealing with a mental health. I have a background in food service and I am looking to go back to school in a field supporting people dealing with mental illness. I want to remove the stigma that mental illness has and to work on more funding for helping get better help for all individuals dealing with mental health problems.”
RESOURCES:
Fresh Start Clubhouse on Facebook
Fresh Start Clubhouse on X (Twitter)
Fresh Start Clubhouse on LinkedIn
Fresh Start Clubhouse on Instagram
Fountain House: “Community as Therapy: The Theory of Social Practice”
Fountain House: “Partners in Care”
Clubhouse Michigan: Find a Clubhouse Near You
Clubhouse International: Quality Standards
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to this week’s edition of Washtenaw United. It’s our weekly exploration of equity and opportunity in our community. I’m David Fair, and today, we’re going to look at mental health and the mission of empowering those dealing with illness. Fresh Start Clubhouse is a member-led organization that provides a structured and supportive environment for adults who are living with mental illness. We have two guests with us today. Webb Lucas is executive director of Fresh Start Clubhouse, and Dan Seng is a member and colleague at the Clubhouse. Gentlemen, thank you so much for stopping by today!
Webb Lucas: Thanks for having us!
Dan Seng: Thank you!
David Fair: Webb, you are serving people here in our area. There is a clubhouse model though that is recognized throughout the world. How is this model built?
Webb Lucas: Well, the model started just over 75, 76 years ago. It was originally in New York City, where as folks were leaving state-run mental institutions, they were emerging into the community and finding that there weren’t a lot of programs or services or clubs that supported or served them. And so, a group of individuals came together and said, “Hey, we have this this experience in common. Let’s make a club for ourselves.” They called it “We Are Not Alone”. In 1955, a social worker from Detroit area, actually, became the first executive director of what’s now called Fountain House in Hell’s Kitchen and multiple areas of New York. And he pioneered and added structure to the model by sort of codifying the standards that we now uphold as a community of 370 clubhouses in 33 countries around the world.
David Fair: But there are varying degrees of mental illness, Webb. How do you go about foundationally helping support your members, giving the varying degrees of support required? Is it a clinical approach?
Webb Lucas: No, no. It is strictly non-clinical, which, I think, makes our clubhouse communities very unique. We support recovery not by treating an illness, but by recognizing and acknowledging that people are all, ultimately, the same and equal and have a desire to be a part of something and to have purpose and find meaning and belonging.
David Fair: And, Dan, when did you become a member of Fresh Start Clubhouse?
Dan Seng: At the beginning of September. So, it’s been about two months.
David Fair: And why did you seek out Fresh Start Clubhouse?
Dan Seng: So, recently, I got diagnosed as bipolar, and I was looking for some resources in the community to help me. I was feeling depressed. I’ve been really isolated. And I was in the house just not doing anything, not going out. I got recommended to Fresh Start, and I just started going. And it’s been a world of difference and the best thing that’s happened to me in probably 10 or 15 years.
David Fair: And you said you’ve only been going two months. That is a huge amount of progress to make in such a short period of time! To what do you attribute that?
Dan Seng: Well, the clubhouse, when you first come, it can be a little bit anxious sometimes, and people deal with it. It’s really feels like a family. You’re making and joining a family, so there’s no judgment. If you’re having a bad day, you can still come in and people will try to pick you up and just try to lift your spirits and try to gain confidence and everything else. So, I attribute the members, the staff and the members there. They’re just the best thing.
David Fair: And that comes down to the non-clinical approach. Our Washtenaw United conversation about Fresh Start Clubhouse in Ypsilanti continues on 89.1 WEMU. We’re talking with executive director Webb Lucas and member colleague Dan Seng. Webb, the stigma around mental illness, that is something that never seems to go away. It can be limiting in academics, job and career opportunities, even relationship possibilities. How do you and the clubhouse members go about working over, through and around some of these systemic and attitudinal barriers?
Webb Lucas: I think the thing that we do best is highlighting who our members are. I hope when folks listen to this conversation and they hear Dan, they’ll hopefully start to realize that someone with a serious mental illness, like bipolar or schizophrenia, is really no different than you or I. We are just humans trying to do the best we can with the lot we’ve been given. And that’s just human. So, yeah, we tried to highlight who we serve. We’re not a community of people who need extra things or are a danger to society, like so many of the narratives that we come across in media. Even in interviews, we’ve had the question of how do we ensure the safety of people who come into the clubhouse? And that question alone is just loaded with stigma of the assumption that someone with a mental illness is a danger.
David Fair: And because of questions like that, I imagine it makes people feel not only marginalized, but then that may drive them into some sense of isolation. How big an issue is loneliness for clubhouse members?
Dan Seng: It is a big issue. Some people, when they go out, they don’t feel like they can connect to just normal people walking around. And sometimes, especially if you meet people that know that maybe you have a mental illness, they will treat you differently in the community. If you try to go get a job or do stuff, people will be like, “Oh, I can’t trust them.” They might not be safe. So, you kind of retreat into yourself sometimes when you run into people like this over and over and over. I love the clubhouse. I feel really safe there. I’ve never had a day where i’ve come in and not felt safe. Honestly, there are days that i’ve not felt safe outside of the clubhouse sometimes. And I run into the people that i’d maybe knew that like look at me different. And I can go into the clubhouse, and there’s no judgment. It just feels really, really safe, and I could open up and be myself. And I love it!
David Fair: Webb, how do you help spread the message that this is a safe community and, just like everyone else, when you go beyond the walls of the clubhouse?
Webb Lucas: We do that in a couple of ways. Number one, within the clubhouse, we have a set of what we call our house norms. Rather than having policies of behavior of what not to do, we as a community came together and created a list of expectations for each other, which we all agree to and hold each other to–things like treating people with respect and dignity, assuming positive intent, taking responsibility for our own actions. Those norms are things that we articulate and try to maintain because if we don’t, other norms might dominate. That also helps to reduce the perception that myself as an employee of Fresh Start or our other staff are there to manage the behaviors of those who attend. We’re all working together for those same norms, and nobody’s policing one another. We’re just upholding a shared community value. The other way that we uphold that and protect the spirit of safety is by then taking those experiences that Dan described, feeling safe within the clubhouse, to what we call transitional spaces. So, we do several monthly social activities where we go out into the community. We might go to the farmers’ market or go to an arcade or go bowling, and we just have a good time together. When we have moments like that, they often lead to conversations with the management of whatever establishment, who we are, what we’re doing, and it’s a great way again to just sort of normalize and humanize this idea of someone who lives with a mental illness. These are people. They’re not the diagnosis that they’ve been given.
David Fair: Ultimately, we’re all in search of community and connection. And, Dan, it sounds like you have certainly found that through your experience at the Fresh Start Clubhouse. What do you intend to do with this newfound sense of self and community? What do you want to do with your future?
Dan Seng: I want to work with people struggling with mental health, changing the stigma and showing people that people with mental illness are not to be feared, they’re not to pushed to the side, they’re over there, so we don’t have to deal with them, to show that they are just people in the community. They’re like everybody else. They’re dealing with things, but they are still humans. Also working on changing some of the policies, like the state level, talking to legislators.
David Fair: You really want to be an advocate.
Dan Seng: Yes, yes! That’s what I’m really trying to step forward and do.
David Fair: Well, I look forward to that! I don’t think there’s a better voice to listen to on that front. Webb, as we approach a new year, what would you like to see in terms of growing access and success for those living with mental illness?
Webb Lucas: Fresh Start is really gaining some positive momentum. During the pandemic, we experienced, as a community, a lot of profound changes: changes in leadership, staff, and composition. But most of all, we became a 501c3 nonprofit, which makes us stand out from the other clubhouses in Michigan. And we are opening our doors to more people. Primarily, referrals came to us through community mental health. Now, we are open to anybody who identifies as somebody with a mental illness. And we’re hoping to develop some new partnerships with local providers, behavioral health providers, psychological care providers, or anybody who hears this and wants to come have a tour. We want to grow our clubhouse community because, as we grow, the skills and strengths of those people who join contribute to us and who we are as a community.
David Fair: Well, I’d like to thank you not only for the time, but for sharing the story! I know that Fresh Start Clubhouse has been in the community for a long time, but I’m not sure that awareness resonates throughout. So, I’m glad we could have the conversation and spread the word today!
Webb Lucas: Thank you for having us!
David Fair: And, Dan, thank you so much! I really appreciate it!
Dan Seng: Thank you! It was wonderful to be here!
David Fair: That is Fresh Start Clubhouse executive director Webb Lucas and member colleague Dan Seng. For more information and to connect with the clubhouse, stop by our website at WEMU.org, and we’ll get you everywhere you need to go. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and you hear it every Monday. I’m David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti.
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is ‘Washtenaw United.’
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