All Are Welcome At Harwich’s Cove Clubhouse

HARWICH – The Cove Clubhouse is located in a small saltbox-style house along Route 28. But to its members, it is much more than that. It is a space for recovery and development of new skills. It is a space to breathe. 

 Founded in 1995, the Clubhouse’s mission is to provide the opportunity for those with diagnosed mental illnesses to lead lives of meaning and productivity. They accomplish this through a variety of methods, program director Gary O’Neill said. 

 Like the space itself, the club hosts a small staff: an employment coordinator, a cook and an education coordinator along with the director. 

 “The members run the club,” O’Neill said. “They do the administration, they work on the finance, they work on the marketing, the fundraising.” 

 Therein lies the utility of club membership. Participation in club activities provides members with skills that are easily transferable to the workforce. In fact, the club assists members in searching for jobs, putting together applications and preparing for interviews. If a prospective member experiences a setback due to a mental health condition and no longer feels capable of working, the club can be a pillar of support during that time. The club is highly structured, and each day proceeds according to a work order. Members adjust to arriving at specified times and completing tasks within their day. Such a structure is not only beneficial for a return to the workforce, but also gives each member a place to go, with a community happy and willing to receive them.

 “We would like to be the go-to place for them,” O’Neill said.

 Support is offered through the club’s structure in numerous other ways. Members get assistance with housing struggles, further educational opportunities, and organizing recreational and social events.

 Additionally, the club itself includes a kitchen where breakfast and lunch are served daily to about 20 people. 

 For those with mental health conditions, their suffering can be not only invisible, but highly isolating. For members, especially those who have experienced a significant mental health crisis, the club is a means of protecting their own dignity. 

 While the work being done at the clubhouse is crucial to the livelihood of its members, pertinent challenges remain. Funding is mainly sourced from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, which O’Neill described as being “very, very basic.” After wages are paid to the staff, not much is left over.

 “Anything else, we have to campaign for,” he said. “We rely heavily on the generous support of some donors.”

 O’Neill expressed gratitude towards local churches and community groups, with whom the club has a good working relationship. Yet the building needs work, including the repair of some broken kitchen equipment and the replacement of the floor. The upkeep of the physical space and the continuation of programs require further financial support.

 “There’s always work to be done in terms of being fully integrated into the community. Mental health still has a stigma attached to it,” said O’Neill.

For a rather small club, the effects on the members are large. About 60 people are members, with membership itself operating on a voluntary basis. Some work full time and come into the club at their leisure, some are there every day, and some are hospitalized, in which case the club uses outreach programs to support them. Some located on the Outer Cape struggle with transportation issues, adding to the challenges facing the program.

The members represent a broad demographic, reflecting the diversity of the neurodivergent community. Despite the obstacles facing the club, O’Neill sees the inherent value in serving such individuals. 

 “Everybody knows somebody that’s had either a mental setback in life or maybe just needs a bit of a fresh start,” he said. 

Amidst a long tradition of weaponizing shame and neglect toward society’s vulnerable populations, institutions such as the Cove Clubhouse are sanctuaries. The work they do provides a tangible place to start fresh. There is no time limit on club membership, either. Those who require its services can use them as much or as little as needed. 

 The club occupies a unique space in mental health services, but an important one. And for the people who use it, it is an acknowledgment of their humanity, worth and progress.