The Clubhouse
At last, Hollywood has a clubhouse!
What Is a Clubhouse?
A clubhouse, according to Clubhouse International, “is a place that provides community for people with mental illness. A Clubhouse is a membership organization; no one is a patient or client, they are members, and with membership comes ownership and responsibility. Members operate their Clubhouse together with a small staff, through a concept called the work-ordered day. It’s based on meaningful relationships and the idea that work promotes recovery by helping end isolation and build self-esteem: there is dignity and purpose in work.”
Origins
Baked into the origin story of Heart Forward has long been the desire to see a clubhouse in Hollywood. Kerry Morrison first toured Fountain House in New York as part of her Stanton Fellowship in 2017. When she visited Trieste, and saw the array of clubs and associations throughout the city formed to support recovery and community inclusion, she knew this had to be part of the Hollywood mental health pilot.
In 2021, a small Steering Committee came together and imagined a potential mission statement for a future Hollywood clubhouse:
We create a community where those with mental health conditions pursue their potential to live with significant purpose in all aspects of their lives.
Heart Forward stayed fixated on this mission and kept the dream alive by awakening the Hollywood community to the clubhouse model cultivating future members. Wherever Heart Forward introduced its Radical Hospitality Initiative, seeds were planted with residents and participants.
In April, 2023, Heart Forward and Fountain House – the original clubhouse in America with a 75-year history based in New York City – signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate around opening a clubhouse in Hollywood. Fountain House dedicated staff and a development consultant to assist with raising the funds to launch this initiative and commenced negotiations with the LA County Department of Mental Health to secure a contract.
Heart Forward assisted Fountain House with the community connections as the “boots-on-the-ground” local guide to navigate Hollywood. Armed with philanthropic support from Kaiser and the Atlas Kardia Foundation, Heart Forward identified space in a commercial office building on Sunset Blvd. and used its funds to secure the initial rent to support a “pop-up” clubhouse. In October 2023, the clubhouse opened one day a week, supported by Heart Forward volunteers and staff.
In the pop-up space, these inaugural members held weekly Zooms with Fountain House staff and members in New York to learn the ropes and strengthen their clubhouse muscles for when it could open full time
Fountain House entered into a contract with LACDMH and hired its first clubhouse director in April 2024. This allowed Heart Forward to step back and “hand over the keys.” By September 2024 the new Hollywood clubhouse was open five days a week with additional staff hired.
Heart Forward is tickled pink to see how the clubhouse is growing, its members are thriving and excitement is brewing about their move to a larger, permanent location on Santa Monica Blvd in the spring of 2026. We are proud to have a photo on the “Founder’s Wall.”
More information about Fountain House and Fountain House Hollywood can be obtained HERE.
Gennaro Simeone, Clubhouse Member
“It’s a joy for me to work with all the people from Heart Forward, and that I believe in them and they believe in me. We’re a team. I especially enjoy seeing that people that are homeless come and join our club, and be noted, and be counted for.”
Erik Birky, Clubhouse Member