Special Strong is now giving local businesses a platform to share how their services can make a difference for people with special needs. This service provider is Prelude Clubhouse, a mental illness rehabilitation center.
What do you do?
Mental Illness Rehabilitation Center – A Community Approach to Restoring Self
Our Mission: Provide an intentional environment where individuals living with mental illness have opportunities to be productive, develop social connections, obtain employment and achieve recovery.
Prelude Clubhouse, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the very first Clubhouse in Collin County, opened in February of 2017 in McKinney, Texas, but is now located at 1905 E. Parker Road in Plano at Collin Creek Church, on a DART bus line. It is not affiliated with any religious organization and accepts people from all faiths and racial or ethnic backgrounds as well as any community.
Mental Healthcare for Adults
We serve adults ages 18 years and older in Collin and surrounding counties. A diagnosis of mental illness, a desire to work towards recovery, and a completed Prelude Clubhouse Membership Application Form signed by a mental health professional indicating that a Clubhouse environment and the individual are a good match for each other are the only requirements necessary for membership.
The program is offered free of charge to members. Healthy lunches, prepared and served by our members daily, only cost $1.50.
By utilizing the strengths and abilities of our members and fostering the development of strong relationships, Prelude Clubhouse offers individuals with mental illness a way to increase self-confidence, use skills and talents they already have and acquire new ones, work towards independence, reduce isolation and loneliness, hospitalizations, decrease incarcerations and reach their personal goals.
Tell us your story and why you started.
Almost four years ago, six parents of adult children with mental illness who had met in a NAMI Family Support Group in Collin County, banded together to start a psycho-social rehabilitation program for their loved ones and others. When they had been meeting in a support group setting, the parents noticed that many young adults who had finished school or who had dropped out of school were not capable of going on to other educational opportunities, employment, or socially engaged because of their mental illnesses.
Most stayed isolated themselves at home in their bedrooms watching TV or playing video games and had few friends or social connections. They were having few life experiences and not maturing emotionally or socially. In many cases, medications and therapy alone were not enough to quell all symptoms and enable them to live full and satisfying lives.
The Proven Clubhouse Model Can Help
These parents decided that using the rehabilitation model of Clubhouse International, used successfully in 34 countries around the world, they would form their own Clubhouse – Prelude Clubhouse – to help integrate those with mental illness back into society and a more normal life filled with friendships, productive work, social activities, and opportunities for paid employment.
We continue our affiliation and active membership in the Texas Clubhouse Coalition which functions to help Clubhouses develop according to Clubhouse International guidelines all over the state of Texas.
We continue to network with other stakeholders in the community such as Life Path, Child and Family Guidance Center, the new Collin County Behavioral Health Network, Medical City of McKinney, NAMI North Texas, local social services, the Sheriff’s Department, and Texas State Representatives and Senators along with Legislative committees advocating for adult Texans living with mental illness.
If someone was considering your services, what would you want them to know?
Prelude Clubhouse provides a warm, welcoming, and accepting environment for those who may have experienced stigma and exclusion in other places. The approach of the Clubhouse model emphasizes the importance of building relationships during a structured, work-ordered day.
Members and staff work side-by-side in the Culinary or Clerical Units to perform all the tasks necessary to run the Clubhouse, take time for wellness activities and healthy lunches and enjoy monthly after-hours social events for fun and fellowship. Members are not considered “patients” or “clients,” but actually participate in all decision-making relating to their Clubhouse operations.
The Facts About Mental Illness
Mental illness affects 1 in 4 families and is the #1 cause of disability worldwide – more than cancer, diabetes or heart disease. There are not enough professional and community resources for those living with mental illness.
Mental illnesses are often diseases of isolation is not the answer to mental illness. Clubhouses offer a community of hope.
Mental Illnesses are life-threatening:90% of all suicides are related to a mental disorder. Clubhouses help people with mental illness get back their lives and health.
Clubhouse Provides Opportunities for:
• Renewed hope through friendships and meaningful work.
• Renewed sense of purpose, self-esteem, and joy.
• Transitional and supported employment.
• Discovering new ways to realize personal fulfillment.
Contact Information
E-Mail Address: [email protected]
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 864301, Plano, TX 75086
Program Address:
Collin Creek Church
1905 E. Parker Rd., Plano, TX 75074
Phone: 469-301-6639
Days/Hours: M/T/Th, 9 AM-4 PM
Anything else you want our readers to know about?
Prelude Clubhouse is open at this time only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. However, when adequate funding is available, we hope to soon be open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. when we can offer a Transitional Employment program in coordination with area businesses.
We have members who are working jobs currently, but we cannot assist them with their employment until we are able to be open five days per week. At this moment, we are relying solely on individual donations to keep our doors open, while our Board is constantly seeking grants from corporate, private, and public sources.
See What This Mental Illness Rehabilitation Center Is All About
If you would like to drop by for lunch and a tour to see what a Clubhouse is all about, please contact our Executive Director, Chelsea Robinson, at 469-301-6639, or [email protected] to arrange a date and time. Leave us your email address, and we will be happy to send additional materials to inform and educate you about either the Prelude Clubhouse, the Clubhouse Movement, and its 70 years of success improving the lives of adults living with mental illness. Additional information with videos can be seen at www.preludeclubhouse.org. and www.clubhouse-intl.org.
Caretakers, parents, families, and individuals will surely be comforted to know that there is such a program offered in the North Texas area, and that mentally ill adults now have a place to go, a place to belong, a place to contribute, a place to be appreciated, and be able to gain confidence with a sense of purpose for their lives.
It can truly be “The Start of Better Things to Come.”