Cherishing Memories from 9 East Franklin St.

Kavette Smith, Nikita Sharma, Raymond Nichols, Bernard Jones, Mike Lantz, Ben Arrowood, Mary Watkins

As we welcome ourselves to the new building with a lot of unpacking, purging, cleaning and organizing, we wanted to look back on some of the wonderful memories we have created in our building at 9 East. Franklin.

We were in the building from 2014 for about seven years. In that span of time, we grew a lot as an organization. We celebrated our 10th anniversary with a big cookout and a bigger fundraiser Mask-R-Aid to celebrate the milestone. A lot of members have joined us, worked towards goals and left to do better things in the community. We are so proud of them. We also added the communications unit and gained a lot of community and employment partners. As we grew in size, we started to explore more public sources of funds and are now an accredited PRP. Of course, we did not hold back on having fun at all, social events such as winter luau (winter beach bash), brunches, thanksgiving etc. always brought us all together.

We asked some of our colleagues about their favorite memory and it seems like a lot of good ones were made. Kavette is grateful that she found her first job working as a Florist Assistant with Dino and Joe when she started out as a member in that building. Ben shared that he had the opportunity to make a lot of new connections. Networking with state legislators has been one of his highlights.

Crystal Berman, a longtime member shared that the building provided her a platform for learning new things. “I learned how to communicate with people and also do different things such as greeting, answering phone calls, writing articles for the newsletter etc.” Social events such as picnic days and bingo night brought her a lot of joy as well.

Mike L always enjoyed stepping into the building and meeting members and staff. He shares, “all of them are very nice.” Raymond recalls going to the Lacrosse game as his favorite memory and he equally enjoyed working with Gina too.

For Bernard, joining as a member in that building was life changing. “In the past 2-3 years, I have gotten my mental health back together.  Just being there and working with Clara and Morgan was very enjoyable. I had some great conversations, shared poetry, made food and had delicious lunch every day.  I got my confidence back up. I am currently working towards a bachelor degree and hope to get a job at Amazon. Some of my favorite memories revolve around the tours we had for Mayor Brandon Scott and a professor from Coppin State and also being on a radio show with Clara.” We are glad that the place holds a lot of positive memories for Bernard.

Mary became a member a few months before we moved to our current location. It was the place where she started connecting with other members and hopes to have better experiences moving forward.

We are so grateful for the years we spent at 9 East Franklin St. and hope to take the foundation of relationships, networks and growth into our new building and make it better.

 

 

At 831 N. Calvert St.

For the current blog post, we wanted to share pictures of what the new building looks like. The space will evolve to serve us better but this will serve as a reminder of how it all started, the journey towards our permanent home.

One of the two second floor offices.

 

Storage space

Hallway full of sunshine

Conference Room: Getting down to the business of the day

 

Second Floor: We’re excited to see how this space will turn out

 Kitchen: It’s also time to eat

Moving Into The New Building

 -Raymond Nichols, Nikita Sharma, Jeanae Samuel, Theresa Bell, Ben Arrowood

We finally have a permanent home!

After ten years of renting two different locations, we were finally able to purchase a building located at 831 N. Calvert St. It used to be a firehouse and now it’s going to be a clubhouse. While  it’s bittersweet to leave our  home of 6-7 years at 9 E. Franklin St, we are excited for the different additions and changes in the new building.

Firstly, it is bigger in square footage which means we can have more members in. Our capacity in the current building is about 40 but we hope to increase that to 70-80. We will also be upgrading to a commercial kitchen with a pizza oven.  Now, who can say no to that? This will also give us a chance to hold more social events and fundraisers and we always are down for some party and fun (Yay!). The open space planning on the second floor will allow for more collaborative work. In addition to that, we will also have other features such as a conference room, equipment room, horticulture room for herbs and plants and many more.  The conference room can also be used as a quiet space when needed.

The unit layout will be a little different. Membership and Culinary unit will be on the first floor and Career Development and Communications will be on the second. Raymond shared his excitement, “It will be a lot of work but better days are ahead of us. It's bigger in space and something we have needed for a long time. We will have a lot more space to have social events and work in the kitchen.”

There will definitely be adjustments to our work ordered the day after we move. We will have to work hard to organize and arrange where everything goes and also find more efficient ways of completing tasks and projects.For parking, there are a few spaces for smaller vehicles but the bigger ones will have to rely on street parking. Mobility will also be parking on the street side. 

We hope to make the best use of it and grow along with it. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call us at 410-727-2030 or join our UberConference meetings at 9:15 AM and 1 PM. The phone number to join the conference is 1-410-886-7702. 

 

Vaccinations in Maryland

 -Christine, Nikita, Theresa, Matt, Ben, Maurice, Morgan, Kat

The discovery of vaccination against COVID-19 has given us a lot of hope. In the United States, vaccinations are distributed by two pharmaceutical companies: Moderna and Pfizer. Both require two doses. The only difference is that you have to wait 28 days between two shots for Moderna and 21 days for Pfizer. Maryland is distributing vaccinations from both companies. About 10 percent of Marylanders have received at least the first dose of vaccine.

The vaccine is being distributed in phases. Right now, we are in Phase 1C which includes adults between the ages of 65-74, front line workers, lab employees, essential workers, healthcare employees, people living in assisted living, nurses, government workers, etc. You can schedule your appointment by calling 410-396-4454, Monday - Friday 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, or you can also visit https://www.marylandvax.org/. If you live in Baltimore County, you can go to https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/c268c6f40463480baae69154b7845ffd and put yourself on the Baltimore County COVID-19 Vaccine Registry so you can get vaccinated when COVID-19 vaccines are available to you. Vaccinations are being distributed in hospitals, pharmacies, local government offices and mass vaccination sites such as BCCC and Baltimore Convention Center. An additional mass vaccination site will open in mid-February at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Other locations in Western Maryland, Southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore are being finalized.

Accessing these vaccinations has been challenging for our members at the clubhouse. Access to reliable transportation is one of the barriers. For Christine, she has barriers with transportation and it has been hard to schedule an appointment of choice. In addition to that, it has been hard to schedule an appointment. Theresa shares, “Donna and I were on the phone for 30 minutes only to find out that the pharmacy did not even have a wait list”.

Common side effects include fevers, chills, tiredness, headaches, and soreness in the arms as per the CDC website.  It is very important to take care of yourself on the day you get vaccinated. Having plenty of fluid and rest, helped Nikita feel better.
 

Navigating COVID-19 vaccinations is a tricky process especially as things have been changing rapidly. The best way for the clubhouse to remain effective would be by sharing new information as we find them.  Researching resources in the community for our members to schedule appointments and navigate transportation is another way to help our members. For example, ride services such as Uber and Lyft provide free rides.

With all of this information, we are hopeful that we can slowly start to have a more vibrant clubhouse community and ensure health and safety for everyone.

 

Hybrid B'More

Writers: Matt, John M, Theresa, Nikita, Robert H, Greg T

Editors: Morgan, Maurice, Kat, Dee, Sharon, Stephanie, Matt, Joe, Mary, Ben

B’More Clubhouse has been operating in a different way since March 2020 and we all know the reason why. Until July, we followed our work-ordered day tasks virtually most of the time and transitioned into a hybrid work-ordered day after that. We have three ways in which we have been trying to stay connected and have a meaningful work-ordered day while helping members reach their goals.

At the present moment, the building is partially open. Members sign up for different shifts; morning, afternoon or the entire day. The goal is to not have more than eight people in the building at a time. In the building, we focus on tasks such as preparing lunch and packages for reach out, cleaning and sanitizing, and also helping members with any community resource or job needs. Greg Tucker, a member of B’More Clubhouse has been attending the clubhouse at least twice a week since our partial reopening in July. He shares, “I struggle when I stay at home all the time because of my mental illness.  Coming to the clubhouse helps me manage my symptoms and I also get to work on my goals. I like coming here to be around people and have positive interactions with everybody. I try to talk to everyone I meet during the day.”  Robert also shares a similar experience but recalls days before the pandemic when we had a lot more members, “Things were different when we had more members inside the building. I am glad we are being safe and having limited attendance though.”

Another way in which we try to stay connected is by participating in reach out car visits. Staff members take turns to visit members on different days, catch up and provide social and emotional support. Theresa shares, “ I saw another clubhouse take this approach and I thought it was a great idea. Even on days when I am not feeling my best, when I go on a reach out car visit and see the light in our members’ eyes, everything feels good after that.” It is indeed amazing to see how we remain creative in finding different ways to connect despite the challenges we are facing.

In addition to the building and reach out car visits, we also have a thriving virtual work ordered day. The clubhouse community meets on weekdays at 9:15am and 1pm on UberConference for our daily meeting. We follow a meeting agenda to check in and get updates on plans for the day.  John Miles, a member, enjoys the individual check ins. It gives him an opportunity to share what he is going through. We also have different meetings and social events virtually such as Job Hour, Menu Planning, Wellness Hour, Gratitude Call, Community Meeting, Houseparty games, Blog updates etc. We are in the process of starting virtual in-house training as well. All of these scheduled meetings and events is an opportunity for our members to participate in whatever sparks their interest and be a part of the meaningful work that we do. Matt has been working with Theresa on organizing virtual tours and orientations and also making group reach out calls. “It’s a different experience to do things virtually but we have adapted fairly well and have everything down”, he shares.

In spite of the challenges brought in by the pandemic, we have been able to make the best of what we have and accomplish many great things. Our board members worked really hard with fundraising and we were able to purchase our own building.  Our lovely members Raven and Mike have been an integral part of food distribution for our members with the help of staff. We have also been able to do a couple virtual pizza parties to celebrate holidays and accomplishments and also distribute 68 meals during Thanksgiving, which is the largest number of meals we served till date.

Navigating a different way to work is challenging. However, the power of a supportive, resilient community is always powerful and we think B’More Clubhouse is a good example of that.

In 2021, our intention is to keep up with our safety procedures so that there isn’t a lot of community transfer and help our members get vaccinated. We also want to make sure that our members are engaged and involved in the clubhouse community and that will come from more engagement and reach out. Some of the ideas that have been share include scheduling individual walks with members, having more reach out family calls virtually and encouraging member to member connection.

With these plans, we hope to carry the clubhouse spirit with us, wherever we go.