Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Mackay.
Hi Amber, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I always knew I wanted to work with people from a very young age. I ended up getting my undergraduate degree in Social Work from The University of Utah and right out of college, I started working at a Clubhouse in Salt Lake City called Alliance House. “A Clubhouse is organized to support people living with mental illness. During the course of their participation in a Clubhouse, individuals gain access to opportunities to rejoin the worlds of friendships, family, employment, and education and to the services and support they may individually need to continue their recovery. A Clubhouse provides a restorative environment for people whose lives have been severely disrupted because of their mental illness and who need the support of others who are in recovery and who believe that mental illness is treatable. The word ‘Clubhouse’ derives from the original language that was used to communicate the work and vision of Fountain House, the very first Clubhouse, which was started in New York in 1948. Since its inception, Fountain House has served as the model for all subsequent Clubhouses that have been started around the world. Fountain House began when former patients of a New York psychiatric hospital began to meet together informally as a kind of ‘club.’ It was organized as a support system for people living with mental illness rather than as a service or a treatment program. Communities around the world that have modeled themselves after Fountain House have embraced the term ‘Clubhouse,’ because it clearly communicates the message of membership and belonging. This message of inclusion is at the very heart of the Clubhouse way of working.” https://clubhouse-intl.org/what-we-do/what-clubhouses-do/
The Clubhouse model has since expanded to 330 Clubhouses in 32 countries around the world.
In 2016 while working at Alliance House, I was approached by a group of Park City residents who wanted to start a Clubhouse in Park City. The community had recently experienced devastation when a few high school students died of a drug overdose. The community realized they didn’t have enough mental health and substance use services available. The Summit County Council decided they needed to create a mental wellness strategic plan to ensure all Summit County citizens could access and have available to them more mental health and substance use services. Starting a Clubhouse was part of the strategic plan, and I was recruited to help make Summit County Clubhouse a reality. Working with an already formed task force, we put together the infrastructure and opened our doors on August 5, 2019, as a registered 501c3 nonprofit and the newest of 6 Clubhouses in Utah.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We have experienced many trials and bumps along the way. We opened our doors in a small conference room in another nonprofit in Park City to only two individuals living with a mental illness. We quickly outgrew our little space and realized we needed a larger space to continue our work. So, in February of 2020 with a very small operating budget, we leased a larger and drastically more expensive office space in Jeremy Ranch. Little did we know Covid-19 was right around the corner. In March of 2020, along with the rest of the world, we shut our doors to our little nonprofit Clubhouse and about 10 Clubhouse members (individuals living with mental illness). We had to ensure that our members were going to be able to continue to receive support so 3 days a week we connected via Zoom with one another, and we called this “Clubhouse Without Walls.” We continued to check in with each other, support one another, and do our best to keep the work of the Clubhouse going remotely. We even took food and other essentials to our Clubhouse members, dropping them off on the doorstep. I am happy to report that none of our Clubhouse members experienced a hospitalization, loss of job, or housing during the critical lockdown time. Only being a new nonprofit for 6 months before Covid-19 came with its set of challenges. We hadn’t had time to really work on marketing ourselves to the local community or raise much revenue to support our programming. We focused on fundraising to support our “Clubhouse Without Walls” program and did what most other businesses did, applied for PPP money.
Once we were able to reunite in person, we were given incredible news that a generous benefactor family was going to purchase a space for us to use as our permanent home. In the summer of 2020, we found the perfect residential home to make as our headquarters. This, however, came with a set of challenges. We had to file for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) with the county planning commission. Filing for a permit is challenging enough but as part of the permitting process, our neighbors within 1000 feet of us were notified of our intentions to turn a residential home into a commercial space. We encountered some stigma around mental health issues and found ourselves in a Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) situation. We used this as an opportunity to try and educate our neighbors and the local community on mental health and try to break some of the deep seeded stigma we were faced with. Happily, we were awarded our CUP and the subsequent appeal that followed.
Now the real work began. We needed to renovate the space from a residential home into something that would better fit our needs. One of the great parts of the Clubhouse model is that the members are involved in all aspects of the running of the Clubhouse including our space. Under the director of a hired contractor, members, staff, board members, and wonderful community volunteers designed, did demolition on the space. We laid flooring, painted, put together furniture, cleared 1.5 acres of thistles in the yard and so much more. At the same time we were renovating we were also trying to raise money through a capital campaign for the cost of the renovation.
We spent all of 2021 in renovation and were finally able to function out of our beautiful new space at the beginning of 2022.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have always worked in nonprofits all throughout college and in my professional career. I initially wanted to work in the criminal justice system and even thought about being a police officer. When I started at Alliance House in SLC, I had every intention of working there for a year or so and then head back to get my graduate degree in social work or criminal justice. I quickly learned that I love the Clubhouse model and I have seen hundreds of individuals regain confidence, purpose, self-worth, and hope by being involved in a Clubhouse. I have seen the support and encouragement from Clubhouses literally save people’s lives. This kind of success is what had kept me wanting to continue to remain involved working with Clubhouses. I started as an entry-level staff person and worked my up to Associate Director at Alliance House and was even their interim Executive Director twice. I also trained to be a Faculty Member for Clubhouse International, which gives me the opportunity to visit Clubhouses all over the world and provide support and evaluation as a consultant. I have even spoken about our start-up process in front of over 600 hundred people from 15 different countries.
People tell me I have a lot of energy and wonder where it comes from? I think I am known for my energy and proud that I can use that energy to make a change. I am most proud of being able to start an organization from the ground up, never having any experience in leading an organization prior. I am proud of my ability to collaborate with others and work towards a common goal. I am not from Park City so coming into a community where I didn’t know anyone and taking on the challenging task of establishing a brand-new organization in a tight-nit community is not for the faint of heart. I have developed a deep love and appreciation for the citizens, leaders, and government officials of Park City and Summit County. I am proud that I can work alongside these wonderful and passionate people to improve mental health services in the community.
I try to be genuine and approach things with humor and always as a team. I show my team and the Clubhouse members that there is nothing I will ask them to do that I won’t also be willing to do. I am proud of this guiding principal and approach to teamwork.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I was a very average student and didn’t enjoy the confines of a classroom. I love to learn through doing and hands on efforts. I started as entry level as you can get in a Clubhouse and have been worked my way to an Executive position. January 2023, I celebrate 17 years working in Clubhouses and plan to continue to do so as long as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: summitcountyclubhouse.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summitcountyclubhouseparkcity/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SummitCountyClubhouse
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@summitcountyclubhouseadmin8551
Image Credits
Darci Herr
Amber Mackay
