Posts by Mary

Did you know that for the past 4 months members of our Aspire House (formerly Clubhouse) community have been meeting weekly with professional musicians and songwriters from the West Coast Songwriters Association to engage in songwriting as a collaborative project of self-expression and healing? Each week for 1-2 hours up to 16 participants have engaged…

Members interviewed participants in our songwriting workshop with West Coast Songwriters to better understand what led them to create. Participants shared their experiences using the following questions as a springboard. • What has the song-writing process been like for you?• What was it like to work with the West Coast Songwriters Association?• Did you have…

Imad––a Moroccan immigrant born in Casablanca––is one of 6 children, speaks 4 languages, and traveled to the United States as an international student to study graphic design at a university in central Oklahoma. There he played as a goalie on the college soccer team, helping to win two back-to-back state championships. Later, he transferred to…

I have been battling Asperger’s Syndrome my whole life. I was first officially diagnosed as Aspie when I was a 13- year- old 8th grader in middle school in December 1996. I have also been battling both relatively strong OCD and epilepsy my whole life. Before I joined California Clubhouse, I was constantly driving the…

Marty’s Story: Making Progress on a Job Search Marty previously worked at Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS) as a warehouse employee and is actively looking for new employment opportunities where he can apply some of his skills. He told us, “The Clubhouse has been a great deal of help with job hunting! With the way society…

Juliana Fuerbringer, founder of California Clubhouse, recently shared how the Clubhouse began––as a way to help her son, Brian, and others like him. Brian dropped out of Stanford in 2009 due to a serious mental illness. Juliana was beside herself, caught up in the panic and chaos of watching her son’s life unravel. She heard…

In February, we celebrated the Grand Opening of the California Clubhouse in its new location in San Mateo! Over 80 people gathered to participate in the festivities. Special speakers included Dr. Jana Spalding, Director of OCFA; Jacki Rigoni, Chief of Staff for Supervisor Corzo; Dr. Jacob Ballon, Co-Director of Stanford’s INSPIRE clinic; and Juliana Fuerbringer,…