Fellowship Place

The mission of Fellowship Place is to help adults recovering from mental illness lead more meaningful, fulfilling, and healthy lives by offering education, opportunities, and resources

Description:
Fellowship Place is a community-based organization that provides psychosocial rehabilitation services to adults recovering from mental illness. It is based on the "clubhouse model" of psychosocial rehabilitation, and offers a wide variety of programs and classes to members seven days a week on a campus-like setting located in the Dwight Neighborhood of New Haven. Fellowship Place offers programs in three broad areas: Recovery Services, Housing Services and a Homeless Engagement Program.

Recovery Services focus on Career Development and Education, Job Training, as well as Social and Recreational Programs. Members can resume interrupted education in the Adult Basic Education/GED program offered in cooperation with New Haven’s Education Department. Training is also offered in computer skills, clerical and food service training, as well as an Expressive Arts program. Social and Recreational programs include Dances, Trips, Bowling, Pampering & Beauty Group, Gardening. Wellness and Fitness Programs include Healthy Eating, Fitness Groups, Softball, HIV Education, and Spirituality. Support Groups offered are: Peer Support Group, Depression Support Group, Schizophrenics Anonymous (SA), Anxiety Support Group, Bereavement Group, Manic Depression Support Group, and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Fellowship Place offers Member Services, such as low-cost meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), emergency food bags, emergency loans, and a newsletter.

Fellowship Inn is a Homeless Engagement Program launched in 1995 with funding from HUD. It is a program for adults who are homeless and struggling with a mental illness and substance abuse. It provides members of the Inn with basic needs - laundry, food, safety, clothes - while connecting them with needed human service resources in the New Haven community and also referring them to housing.

Fellowship Commons Housing project was established in 1999. It is designed to provide a permanent home for persons recovering from mental illness who are currently homeless or at risk of homelessness. The program successfully purchased, renovated, and currently operates 23 units including single room occupancy, efficiency, and one- and two-bedroom apartments. The housing is affordable as tenants pay only 30% of their income for rent and the balance is subsidized by the Housing Authority of New Haven. The support services consist of guidance in skills of daily living, money management, entitlements, housing issues and in completing individual recovery plans, as well as collaborating with other treatment providers. Because the houses are located close to the Fellowship Place campus, tenants participate in a variety of the social and educational programs offered by the agency. During 2007 Fellowship Commons Whalley will add an 18-unit apartment building to the agency’s housing capabilities. This project is also dedicated to provide supported housing services to adults in recovery from mental illness.

History:
The agency was started as the "Fellowship Club" in 1960 by Phyllis McDowell and New Haven community volunteers with assistance from a local psychiatrist. Originally created as an "after care" program for patients being discharged from state hospitals after years or decades of institutionalization, the Fellowship Club provided social and recreational programs several days a week from space rented in the former Jewish Community Center on Chapel Street. Over time, the demand for services increased with more and more individuals with serious mental illness returning to community living. In the mid-1980's Fellowship moved to its current location at 441 Elm Street in the Dwight neighborhood. As we grew, we adopted some of the principles and philosophy of the "clubhouse model" of psychosocial rehabilitation from Fountain House in New York City. This model assured that participants in the program were designated as "members," had staff and members working side by side to carry out the work of the clubhouse, focused on participation and productive activity as a means to reintegration, and assured that members always had a place to go. Increasing need for a broader array of programs and classes has led to the creation of the varied and eclectic curriculum being offered at Fellowship Place today.

In March of 2004, Fellowship completed a Feasibility Study funded by the Melville Charitable Trust and conducted by Clemow Consulting, LLC. As a result, in April 2004, Fellowship’s Board approved a Capital Campaign with the goal to raise $3 million dollars over three years. The campaign has raised over $4 million, including a bond allocation of $2 million from the State of Connecticut, to fund renovation of its aging campus. In June of 2004, the firm of Charney Architects was hired and developed an updated Master Plan that will renovate the Campus and create additional space of about 5000 square feel when completed. The Master Plan is divided into four phases, the first of which will be constructed in 2007.
Fellowship Place serves more than 500 members per year, all from the Greater New Haven area.

Contact people:

Melissa Holroyd, Development Director, (phone), (email) Stacey Petrillo, Technology Coordinator, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: 203-789-4451

Address:

441 Elm Street New Haven, CT 06511 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.fellowshipplace.org

Directions:

From 1-91 South: 1. Exit 1 to Rte. 34 2. Exit 3 off Rte. 34 connector (last exit) 3. Straight to third traffic light - Take RIGHT onto Howe Street 4. Continue straight through 4 traffice lights 5. At 5th. . . (more)   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Union Station,   Walk distance (in minutes): 25   Nearest Bus Stop: Corner of Dwight St. and Whalley Ave, 2 minute walk

Last updated on April 27, 2009