FIA CLULBHOUSE ACCREDITED WORLDWIDE

Accreditation
We recently learned we have earned a three conditional accreditation from Clubhouse International. They are a non-profit organization dedicated to creating sustainable solutions for mental illness. It evaluates more than three hundred clubhouses worldwide to make sure they are strictly following the international standards.
We all worked so hard for this and we all should be so proud of what we have accomplished in such a short time. We have had to make a lot of changes, but our commitment to provide excellence and a strong environment was noted by the accreditation group. Of the 36 standards we have only have 7 standards that need some work to meet all the standards.
People from the Independence Center in St Louis have visited often and assisted us to make sure we are working in the right direction to obtain 100 percent on the 7 we still need to work on. The center has been very helpful and we really appreciate all of their assistance.
We will report back in 12 months and with a little help we hope to have polished the standards that we still need to meet. We know we can do this. We will be opening our door to people with a mental illness that are not affiliated with BJC.
We will be working side by side together, staff and members, and hope to build bigger and better relationships. There have already been a lot of changes and altho a lot of the changes are slow to be accepted with good humor and patience we are learning as we grow. We are dedicated to change and getting our standards perfect so that in 12 months we will be a fully accredited chub house and will be a part of this great group, and will be able know what a great job we have all worked so hard for.

Changes

We now have lots of changes to our art program. We no longer have art or craft classes durning our daylight hours. Instead we have several evening art and craft groups. We also have other events in the evening such as a movie and dinner night at least once a month. We had a pot luck dinner and everyone really enjoy that. We had lots of good food. We also provide transportion to the local Nami meeting. We have some weekend things to do and no longer have in house groups. We do have and exercise area that you may use after getting a ok signed by your doctor. They have started to provide more groups at the Farmington building. We have a smoking cessation group and one set of groups are for over 50 members. Procovery, Bridges, anger management, independent living, and others groups and meetings and some that are being started almost every month.
We have a lot of new people coming to the clubhouse and we are helping them to be acclimated to the clubhouse. We all work together to make sure that everyone has a tast to do daily and are able to contribute to the clubhouse in a meaningful way and be part of all the other members and staff. We will get there but it going to take a lot of hard work for all of us.

Betty Wood 2/24/15