Clubhouses are local. community-based centers that provide adults with serious mental illness hope and opportunities to reach their full potential.
Members and staff work side-by-side to run the Clubhouse, learning job skills in the process.
Clubhouse is a place to meet friends. Through a structured day, members work and socialize which is a crucial part of recovery.
A Clubhouse has members, not clients. Being a member means that an individual has both shared responsibility and ownership for the success of the Clubhouse.
Community Benefits
WSBT TV recently reported that in St. Joseph County, the most common reason people seek medical help is for depression and other mood disorders.
Clubhouses improve members lives by providing opportunities to achieve their social, financial, and vocational goals. Research has shown that their successes, in turn, impact the wider community in which members reside.
Documented Benefits
Reduced Health Care Costs
Higher Employment Rate
Improved Well-Being
Reduced Hospitalizations
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Robert Raster, M.D., President, Partner, South Bend Psychiatry LLC
John Lloyd, Vice President and Chair of Governance Committee, Associate General Counsel, University of Notre Dame
Lynn Rhody, Secretary, Manager of Clinical Operations, Epworth Beacon Health
David Aranowski, Treasurer and Chair of Financial Committee, Managing Partner Aranowski & Company
Soledad Garcia, Deputy, Crisis Services Unit, St. Joseph County Police
Jennifer Martin, Clubhouse Member, Former Employee of the Year at ProStaff and Former TE Staff at Barnes & Thornburg
Kessa Kearse, Chair of the Marketing and Development Committee, Program Administrator,
IMPACT Patrick Industries
Leo Priemer, Retired, Edward Jones
Lisa Anderson, Clubhouse SJC Founder, Notre Dame-Office of Social Concern
Staff
tess olson
Executive Director
Theresa “Tess” Olson grew up in Elkhart, Indiana and previously was a resident of St. Joe County. She has returned home to Michiana to lead Clubhouse after serving as a human services executive in the nonprofit and government sectors in Chicago.
Most recently Olson served in various executive roles over ten years with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Chicago, Illinois. During her tenure she improved processes and systems for both individuals in custody and staff including serving with a core team of organizational leaders in successfully elevating the Department of Corrections into substantial compliance ratings with the Federal Department of Justice and freeing the organization from a consent decree that had been in place for four decades.
Prior to joining the Sheriff’s Office, Olson served the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center (CCAC) as the Chief External Affairs Officer. The CCAC serves sexually and severely physically abused children and their families, with a focused emphasis on supporting the children and family’s mental health and overall well-being through their unique public-private partnership onsite collaboration. Olson successfully led the agency to diminished reliance on government funding by vastly expanding grants, corporate and individual giving as well as the donor and volunteer base.
Olson started within the non-profit sector with the Foundation of NorthShore University HealthSystem where she established their prospect management and development research systems, and also served as a grantwriter and gift officer.
Olson holds certificates in mediation from the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago, leadership development from the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University of Chicago, in nonprofit management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a bachelor’s degree in marketing communications from Columbia College of Chicago. She is also a graduate of the former Elkhart Memorial High School.
Olson is an impassioned advocate for advancing equity, supporting those who are marginalized in our society, reducing stigma surrounding mental illness, and expanding mental health access and services. She loves music and enjoys deejaying and singing. Olson is a masterful whack-a-mole player, is highly competitive in euchre and scrabble and is a burgeoning dominoes player. Tess treasures road trips and is writing a collection of short stories called “SoulTrips” centered around visiting and immersing herself in small towns with populations of less than 2000.