Following a rocky post-pandemic recovery, the Fresh Start clubhouse for adults dealing with mental illness moved into a new space in September, and new director Mary Heinemann is determined to rebuild and grow.
“We had five new members join last month,” she reports. It’s a significant number considering that in recent months—partly because of space limitations in the previous location—no more than ten to fifteen members a day were attending.
Launched as Trailblazers thirty-three years ago in the basement of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Fresh Start was one of the first of what are now forty “psychosocial clubhouses” in Michigan. To build confidence and create a sense of community, their members—who are mostly middle-aged or older—prepare meals, garden, learn computer skills, and make decisions as a group.
“Above all, people get a sense of belonging,” says Summer Berman, Heinemann’s predecessor. Much of that was lost, she says, during the Covid lockdowns. “We stayed almost exclusively virtual for nearly a year,” recalls Berman. The members “told us, ‘I miss my clubhouse. I miss my friends.’ We definitely noticed an increased level of stress.”
Making matters worse, a few months into Covid, Fresh Start was forced to move from the building on S. State St. it had occupied for seventeen years. Touchstone, the Port Huron–based nonprofit that managed it and owns the building, terminated its contract on three months’ notice. Its finances shaky, Fresh Start gratefully accepted an offer from Community Mental Health to occupy a conference room in CMH’s building on Ellsworth Rd.
In its new home on Michigan Ave. in Ypsilanti, Fresh Start enjoys considerably more space, including room to garden. Lacking a full-scale kitchen, the new home may prove temporary, but it’s a landing pad for Heinemann, a young U-M social work grad and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. She’s determined to continue growing membership, hire more staff, and bring back an employment service that placed members at local businesses like Zingerman’s. She also wants to greatly expand fundraising, including a 5K fun run on October 7.
Almost a year ago, Fresh Start took the bold and unusual move of establishing itself as an independent nonprofit. Under Touchstone, members had to be on Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor, and had to be referred by a mental health worker. And some people who do qualify just don’t like dealing with bureaucracies, adds Berman, who still consults for the group. “One population we’re interested in are people living with mental illness that is undiagnosed, particularly BIPOC communities—people who have hesitations [about seeking care] for very good reasons.”
The move to Ypsilanti is a big change for the Ann Arbor–birthed organization, but in recent years, it’s had more members from the east county than the west. Though an AATA bus stops frequently in front of the Ypsi location, it seems to have faded from visibility in Ann Arbor. “I don’t know anyone who’s used it,” emails a person who works for the local NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) office.
Berman is optimistic that things will continue to improve under Heinemann’s leadership. “She’s coming out of a background in community organizing and entrepreneurship,” her predecessor says. “I’m really excited to see where she takes the organization.”
