California Clubhouse
Membership is free, voluntary, and for life.
Opened in May 2015, California Clubhouse (the Clubhouse) is the only resource of its kind in San Mateo County. We provide a community structure that supports people struggling with mental illness, including young adults and seniors, and for the people who love them.
Based on a belief that everyone can sufficiently recover and lead better lives, California Clubhouse is a community-centered organization where people with mental illness can go every day during business hours to work on overcoming the obstacles they face. It offers support, training, education, healthy social interaction and positive reinforcement through collegial relationships and work. Since the onset of COVID-19, all programming is now virtual and also includes activities in the evenings and weekends.
Members share ownership and responsibility for the success of the organization. They work and socialize in a unique partnership with a small and dedicated staff, building on their strengths Through its programming, Clubhouse also builds and supports its members' social and emotional skills and wellbeing thereby rounding out the interactions and behaviors necessary to live well and successfully out in the community. This community-based approach complements the available psychiatric treatment and has proven to support better outcomes.
The Clubhouse provides a variety of structured vocational rehabilitation opportunities for members. While
helping to run the Clubhouse, members learn, practice, and polish new and exciting job and life skills that will both enhance their lives and help them become successful employees. The skills they acquire or strengthen while working at the Clubhouse can be readily applied to a variety of outside work environments. The vocational program also provides members with the support, training, and access they need to secure independent paid employment.
Widely Replicated & Endorsed
California Clubhouse is accredited and built on a proven worldwide model. The first Clubhouse was started 68 years ago in New York by four psychiatric patients who committed to helping each other recover. Their vision evolved into Fountain House, a beacon of mental health recovery and now a thriving $44 million institution. Positive outcomes attracted others who came to learn about the model. Demand to replicate the Clubhouse model led to the establishment of Clubhouse International in 1994, an organization created to codify the Standards and to help start-up Clubhouses get up, running, and certified. There are now over 330 Clubhouses in 33 countries.
Clubhouse International/Fountain House of New York received the 2014 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize of $1.5 million. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation presents the annual award, the world's largest humanitarian prize, to an organization doing extraordinary work to alleviate human suffering. Clubhouse is also a U.S. Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration {SAMSHA) - approved evidencebased
model of recovery and the only mental health model that has gained special Advisory Status to the World Health Organization.
Research confirms the value to Clubhouse members, their families, and the community at large of higher employment, reduced hospitalization, reduced incarceration, and improved well-being.
Your Clubhouse donation can help us continue to build the California Clubhouse community,
strengthen our programs, and make a difference.