Clubhouses provide comprehensive and dynamic opportunities for persons living with severe mental illness to participate in housing, employment, education and health and wellness initiatives that renew and reconnect them with mainstream society. Members play an active role in their own recovery and that of their peers by working alongside staff to organize and run programs. Founded in New York City in 1948 with the establishment of Fountain House, the Clubhouse model has proven effective at improving wellbeing and physical and mental health, employment rates, and reducing re-hospitalization, and incarceration among individuals living with mental illness. The model is also cost-effective, with one year of programming costing the equivalent of two weeks of hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital in the US. Clubhouse International is having an impact at an international scale. To date, there are 320 accredited Clubhouse programs in 34 countries which reach more than 100,000 people per year.

To date, there are 320 accredited Clubhouse programs in 34 countries which reach more than 100,00 people per year. In Pennsylvania, there are 20 accredited Clubhouses statewide.

• A right to a place to come

• A right to meaningful relationships

• A right to meaningful work

• A right to a place to return

You can learn about these rights and the four key components of Clubhouse by clicking the button below.