Day One - Done!

Well... I arrived at my lodgings in Boston at around midnight and then around 7am I got myself on the MBTA train into Boston itself to have time to see some of the city before I headed to my meeting with the Center Clubhouse. I managed to find a really great community cafe just outside the station, Panera Cares have great food and coffee, patrons pay what they can afford (there is a recommended price) and this supplements the aim of supporting people who are less fortunate.

There are of course similar projects in the UK, but to find it right outside a major metro stop on my first morning felt quite precipitous! From there I managed to see some of the city, I was keen to see Faneuil Hall and the marketplace - I saw enough to be sure I wanted to visit Boston for longer one day.

Now... I had arranged to meet my hosts from Center Club outside the station, I was confident they would find me as I had a green bag, blue shoes, and a bright blue shirt... my host was Anthony who won't mind me saying is not hard to spot - he had a purple t-shirt with CENTER CLUB on it and a sign with my name on it... we of course did not find each other! And so I walked to the club and poor Anthony met me there shortly after.

Free hat and a welcome sign!

The club had a great feel the moment I arrived, and not just because they had put up a sign for me... a sign! Michael greeted me and gave me the initial tour, he had been homeless and was aware of the clubhouse and so asked for a referral - since then he credits the club with helping him to stay well, begin to rebuild his life, and make new friends and connections. Within the club everyone was involved in work within the different areas, with members both teaching and being taught, supporting each other and staff also working on housing support, employment, and general support to people.

Michael my tour guide and friend!

As well as the more obvious work there were a great deal of basic practical offers, a large locker of your own for people who may be homeless, great food available for a dollar, computers to use for work searching, and an ethos that emphasises supporting people to understand their rights. Indeed the mural about human rights was displayed as proudly and prominently as the boards which celebrated club members who had found employment.

Human Rights are core to supporting people

Many of the members who are now in work

Now I had assumed that I would spend an hour or two, but I ended up staying through dinner - which on Friday night is two slices of pizza, soft drink, and a movie for a dollar! Again staff and members all worked jointly to serve, prepare, and clean up. Over lunch I had chatted to Anthony, who like Michael had found support and friendship within the clubhouse. All of the staff were constantly busy but managed to offer me time and I was able to see the support that they offered, sometimes with a practical issue and sometimes just to ensure someone felt heard. Sean is clubhouse royalty as his grandparents established a clubhouse and his parents also run them, he grew up around the culture and ethics.

Two slices of pizza, root beer, and a movie $1 - yes please

Mary the programme director was away on a personal matter but took time to speak to me on the telephone, I think it was the comment that 'in a good clubhouse when you walk in you should't immediately know who is a member and who is staff'. Within Center Club if you joined many of the activities then this would be the case, at the team meeting I attended it was a chance for everyone to share thoughts and discuss anything they felt needed attending to - I was able to introduce myself and from there I had any number of interesting conversations with people.

It's a small world, Michael who greeted me was actually born in Stepney - later in the day I was able to show him where I had come from and what had happened to the hospital that he was born in, and also how to get a copy of the UK birth certificate that he would have had prepared at the time.

A gentleman who had travelled from Iraq had faced discrimination in the wider community, within the clubhouse he was able to explain that he was a Christian and that was the reason for coming to the US, rather than being the perceived threat of a muslim from the middle east that others had seen - this supported (unprompted) Florence's comment to me that in the Clubhouse most people didn't see culture or colour, if their was a disagreement it was generally because two people simply didn't get along.

I think what I left with - if this isn't too twee - is that the currency of the Center Clubhouse is hope, people can feel respected, supported and can see the opportunities that people in a similar situation have managed to grasp. This in my view is one of the unique powers of peer support and co-produced work, it also provides an element of trauma informed support simply because people understand each other.

So day one could scarcely have been better for me, originally Boston was only to be my landing point before heading off to DC, but late in the day I decided to try and find a clubhouse to visit. Now I'm in Maryland, with appointments in DC, with NACOA US, and even a meeting or two 'on the hill' where I hope to learn about the importance of having people of influence on your side when pressing for change.

In the abstract I think the Clubhouse visit has taught me a lot, in the more relevant and practical sense I do believe that back in Lowestoft we absolutely should seek to apply the model, or something similar.