2023 SPRING NEWSLETTER

Be sure to visit our newly designed Empowerment Clubhouse website and stay in touch!

Member Driven...Member Designed

The Empowerment Clubhouse is a Proud Member of

Greetings Empowerment Clubhouse Members!

We are thrilled to share our Newsletter with you and the many items shared by our Members. As you are aware, we launched our New Look! and are Growing! Work-Ordered-Days are filled with engaging and exciting activities from learning new recipes and cooking from scratch, burrito class, learning labs, job support, to community activities, art for mental health, digital learning, and Open Mic and Game Nights our Members are on the Move! This year alone we have helped five Members gain meaningful employment...!

Check our EC Calendar do not miss out on helping prepare goodie bags to support May Mental Health Awareness Month! We have stress balls, mini-journals, and need to paint mini-pots for our succulents.

Garden-We are all set for Spring and Summer work! Enjoy some sweet tea and lemonade during our Work Ordered Day and feel refreshed! And don't forget to stop by to our EC Chuck...he is ALWAYS Hungry!

I'll see you at the Empowerment Clubhouse. And, remember...Work Works!

Christina Junker

Executive Director, MCCDC, Empowerment Clubhouse (Interim Program Director)

Be sure to check out our Monthly Calendars so you can stay updated and our social media sites! We have some great videos and photos!

My Wellness-Happening Every Wednesday!

Join Us Every Afternoon for Member Outreach and business administration work and enjoy a refreshing beverage in the T.H.R.I.V.E. Unit while working on business administrative duties.

Monday's and Friday's are Member Empathy Workshops and Freestyle Friday's with Open Mic!

We are so proud of our Culinary Members who are all COOKING FROM SCRATCH for Mental Health! All Members have their Food Certifications and are learning new recipes every day!

Lunches and Supper Events-Please RSVP (Call or email) so that plenty food

is prepared for all!

Clubhouse Open Every day 9:00am-5:00pm and main holidays!

Check with your Unit/Program for Tasks and Projects! All Work tasks are marked on boards and ready for you to take charge!

Work Ordered Days virtual are Mondays and Fridays at 9:30am.

Decision Making Meetings are 1st Tuesday of the Month.

Unit Meetings are every Friday at 10:00am. Calendar subject to change.

Please visit website for updates. ZOOM 492 524 7798 Password 1234

MAY IS MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH! Contact EC for special activities!

Community Outings for Mental Health! (Photo Credit CJunker Richardson Bay)

Our Peer Support Specialist Event was a huge success! Please contact Mark Parker to learn more or the Empowerment Clubhouse!

When I was about seven years old, I started to have this disease. It happens to only about one in 40,000 children in the US, it happened to me before I was seven, I had a friend. After that, I was 72 years, until 2014 I had no friends. Down through the years in spite of psychotic fear, I was able to graduate high school and do approximately one year of college work (I didn’t know I was sick).

I went to work. I would be able to work for a few years, and then I would suffer a breakdown. Sometimes I would lose my job. Finally, in the 1980s I worked three and a half years as Directory Assistance Operator. I suffered a breakdown. The company psychiatrist said I was totally disabled. Since then, I have lived on Disability and Social Security.

I have problems: 1. Whomever I am with, I am afraid that he or she might kill me, 2. I lack motivation, 3. My memory concentration and earning are impaired.

In twenty years of off and on therapy I have been unable to break free from these problems. I have felt like a failure because I could not be cured. Added to the pain of my illness was the pain of feeling like a failure.

Then I joined the Empowerment Clubhouse where I am learning to focus on what I CAN do even if-for the present-I cannot be cured. Because I was physically impaired, it was suggested that I spend the work-ordered day doing research and writing.

I wrote an article. However, my anxiety became so intense that I couldn’t write anything else. Then I remembered what Lisa M. Najavits, PhD, had written: Creativity… allows you to convert emotional plain into authentic expressions of your truth that inspire others or contribute to the world. So now I think of my writing as not being like a school assignment, but as something creative-like sculping a figurine out of clay.

Before I came to the Clubhouse I felt the pain of failure because I could not be cured. Now I set my mental impairments to one side, and I am happy exercising the healthy part of me.

Career Guest Speaker - Ricardo Moncrief

Sylvia Bynum, a member of Empowerment Clubhouse since 2017 and her friend Fabara Critney, walked in the 17th Annual “Kidney Walk” at the Grand Pavilion Community Park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Transitional Employment and Career Center (Supported and Independent Employment)

We assist our members in their career development plan by services provided under the Transitional Employment and Career Center program.

Garden Program

This hands-on program is developed to help teach Empowerment Clubhouse members healthy habits, self-sufficiency and the satisfaction of hard work.

Culinary Program

The Empowerment Clubhouse Culinary Program cooperatively prepares wholesome meals every day. Members and staff work together to shop for food, plan meals, choose recipes and manage the kitchen.

Yum! Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Richard at the Refrigerator

“I do not believe that you have to spend a lot of money to eat well: it is hard to beat a plain old baked potato.” .

Fresh Green Salad

"Good food is good mood."

EC Supporting Others

The whole EC Community shops for lunches

Member Check-ins and Pick-ups rain or shine

Thank you Ida Times-Green or being our Special Career Guest Speaker

(Click Image Below to View Video)

[email protected]

"The Empowerment Clubhouse is a program supported by the County of Marin Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) using Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funding."

www.marinbhrs.org .