Hillside Clubhouse

Hillside Clubhouse is a work focussed rehabilitation project for people with severe mental health problems. We provide services in the London Borough of Islington mainly to residents of Islington but also to some residents of surrounding boroughs. In essence beneficiaries are also volunteers because they support the running and delivery of our services.

We aim to maximise our members' (service users') opportunities by helping build life skills to equip them to become more socially included in mainstream activity including employment, education and training activities. We also aim to support our members to become more independent, maintain good mental health and to be more involved in their local communities through confidence building, practical and emotional support and signposting into mainstream activities.

Clubhouse is a particular model (replicated worldwide) where services (activities) are delivered within the framework of a 'work ordered day' for members. The ethos is one of partnership working where staff have to depend on members to run the clubhouse. Our members are volunteers by nature of this relationship. The work ordered day mirrors very much activity to be found in any small business and members will be involved in all functions, for example: administration, finance, recruitment, outreach, publicity, training, catering, reception, business meetings etc. The aim of that is to develop members' basic life and work skills. We also have a number of paid transitional work placements (short term) with external employers where members have the opportunity to undertake paid work on a time-limited basis with full support from the Clubhouse during the placement.

The Clubhouse also has a number of different projects to support members' work and life goals including:

* Working Futures which provides focussed information advice and guidance to employment, work placements, progressions to training and support into mainstream permanent employment
* Our Work Tasters project which enables members who are not quite ready for work to sample a range of careers by shadowing employees at their normal places of work
* Our External Catering project which provides work opportunities and food hygiene/customer care training to our members seeking careers in this industry
* The Kiosk - our retail outlet which gives members retail work opportunities and sells a range of snacks and drinks to the public
* The Catalyst Programme - which provides small grants to members to further their personal development

E-mail: enquiries@hillsideclubhouse.org.uk