History
of Adventure House
From
the basement of a local church...
...to
one of the largest clubhouses,
per
population, in the world!
Adventure House had its beginnings in the basement of a local church
in Shelby, North Carolina. There, Clients and staff from the Mental
Health Center met to form The Adventurer’s Club. Persons attending
the program were no longer called Patients or Clients, but were
referred to as Members. In March of 1986, a small mill house was
located, with the rent donated in order that our limited Resources
could be used for operational expenses. At this time, about seven
members were attending on a daily basis.
We converted this day activity program into a Clubhouse Model Rehabilitation
Program, based on the internationally recognized Fountain House
in New York City. Within a few months, our attendance jumped to
22 members per day. We changed our name to Adventure House and established
a very strong work-ordered day. We then began looking for a larger
house to accommodate our growing membership. With the assistance
of a coalition of four local banks, we purchased our current Clubhouse
in October 1987.
In February 1988, Adventure House began the first Employment Program
for persons with Mental Illness in Cleveland County. Our Transitional
Employment Program enabled many of our members to work real jobs
for real pay with local employers. The Clubhouse often provides
transportation supports to these jobs, as there is no public transportation
in this rural community.
In May 1989, Adventure House opened the first Supported Housing
Program in North Carolina that utilized individual apartments. Since
that time, our Clubhouse based Supported Housing Program has expanded
to 33 apartments, all occupied by Adventure House Members.
In 1991, Adventure House achieved another first. We were the first
Clubhouse operated by a Mental Health Center, to become Free Standing.
Since then, we have assisted a number of Clubhouses around the country
to become independent of their auspice agency.
Through the fund raising efforts of our Board of Directors, the
original Clubhouse has been expanded twice. We are currently serving
over 100 active members, with an average daily attendance of 70.
This makes us one of the largest Clubhouses per population in the
world.
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