Written by: Vanessa Molina Santamaria • September 3, 2024• In the Community

A Helping Hand to Those in Need

Since 2010, the Key Clubhouse of South Florida has provided homes and job placement for people with mental illness. Now, they’ve opened a new facility to help even more.

If you or a loved one has ever been impacted by mental illness, then you know just how challenging it can be. The staff and volunteers at the Key Clubhouse of South Florida understand that challenge all too well, which is why they’ve devoted their valuable time and skills to giving people with severe mental illnesses a leg up in life.

But Key Clubhouse does a whole lot more than provide (critically important) housing and meals. The ultimate goal of the organization is to help its members reintegrate into the community with jobs, education, friendships and more.

“Our mission is to afford people whose lives have been disrupted by mental illness the opportunity to recover meaningful and productive lives through self-directed reintegration in the workplace and the community,” says Debra Webb, CEO of Key Clubhouse of South Florida. “The goal is a high quality of life for all members, ongoing improvement and the ultimate elimination of the stigma associated with mental illness.”

Webb has a long professional history of helping those with mental illness. She was the founding CEO of HOPE Clubhouse in Fort Myers before taking the leadership role at Key Clubhouse of South Florida. “I have seen firsthand how people living with this devastating illness, whom we call members, thrive in a Clubhouse by feeling like they belong to a restorative community and a place to go where they have a purpose and are productive daily,” she says.

Meaningful Recovery

Though it was first founded in 2010, the Key Clubhouse reached a major milestone in 2022 when they opened a large facility in Miami that offered permanent housing, job placement services and more to its members. Over the past two years, they’ve been instrumental in placing more than 100 of its members in jobs throughout South Florida.

“The Key Clubhouse is a ‘Recovery Through Work’ model, and in the last year we have placed 41 people back in employment,” says Webb. “We have supported over 15 members to go back to school into an accredited college or vocational training. Key Clubhouse partnered with Carrfour Supportive Housing, and we now have 47 of our members who were facing homelessness in apartments above the Key Clubhouse at our Northside location.”

New Kendall Location

The Key Clubhouse has been so successful in its mission with its first facility that on August 15, 2024, they officially opened a second facility in Kendall. The new facility will also offer housing, as well as rehabilitation and employment placement services for adults living with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, major depression, major anxiety disorder and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). The new facility also stretches the outreach of Key Clubhouse into new areas, including Kendall, West Miami, West Kendall and farther south.

Webb is very excited about the new Kendall facility and the additional services it will allow Key Clubhouse to offer to the community. “Due to an extremely high demand for people living in West Kendall, we appealed to Thriving Mind to help fund a second location for Miami-Dade residents,” she says. “Many members were taking a train and two buses to get to our Northside Clubhouse. That is a long journey for someone who is living with a mental illness. Many members do not have their own vehicles, so transportation is a challenge.”

From Humble Beginnings

Since starting as a very small organization in 2008, the Key Clubhouse of South Florida has grown immensely to a mental health organization with two major facilities that has improved the lives of hundreds of individuals through housing, education and work. Webb is optimistic that their recent expansion will enhance the overall mission and vision of Key Clubhouse in the years to come.

“The Key Clubhouse of South Florida is part of an international network of mental health clubhouses around the world in 30 different countries,” she says. “We are immensely proud to be able to open a second Clubhouse in Miami-Dade to serve people who have been marginalized by this devastating illness.”

The Key Clubhouse of South Florida has two locations, at 8301 NW 27th Avenue in Miami and now at 9000 SW 137th Avenue, Suite 220, in Kendall. For more information or to donate or volunteer, call 786.504.4374 or visit their website at keyclubhouse.org.

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Last modified: September 3, 2024