"I was a stay-at-home mom, and when my daughters went off to college I realized I had to find something to do with myself. I had some family history with mental health issues, my aunt was bipolar, and I had a friend who was schizophrenic, so I kinda had a background. I saw a small ad in the paper that a mental health day treatment center needed volunteers and so I volunteered. I was there for 9 years, once a week, and I really liked it. But after they got a new director, things changed and I didn't want my name attached to it.

 

So at that point, my daughter told me I had to do something on my own, and I was like "What!" I have no college degree behind me. So I got together with a group of 20 people from the drop-in center, and I told them, "this is what I'm thinking, do you wanna give it a try, it will be mostly up to you" and many of them were up for it. Everyone wanted to try, but it was a struggle, we had no idea what we were doing so it took about 9 months to get everything set up on the 8th of February 1999.

 

It's a place where the members would be taking care of each other, no one gets paid so everything is done by the members, and working together was a large part of what I had envisioned. There's food here all the time, breakfast you can fix yourself, community-style lunch, and there's stuff they can take home at the end of the day. Our whole intention is to help people grow in whatever way we can do that. Sometimes that means being very patient, sometimes years until they can get things together to live a life, a good life.

​

If you have someone to take care of, that builds your confidence, it gets you out of your head. If you're helping someone else, you're going to be the one who benefits the most. I got that from Patch Adams ... and it's the truth. So that's what I wanted to give them, a chance to be part of a family if they needed that, because so many people have been abandoned by their family, and that makes holiday time particularly hard. So if they don't have a family and are isolated and lonely they can come here and have a family. And food, food was always a primary thing, that's the foundation on which we were built. The hungry person thinks about what's in their stomach, and they can't think about helping other people and all the other things they need to be thinking about because they gotta eat, and that's why we started.

 

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Everybody involved is involved because they had rough times so they can take what they have and make something good from it. And the word "stand", is a power word, to stand up and be seen, to be counted. I think we have really made a difference in the community over the 20 years we have been open. A lot of people have had their minds opened about someone who is schizophrenic or bipolar or someone who thinks and acts differently and I think people are a lot more accepting than they used to be.

 

There were few people who thought we could make this work. If someone was mentally ill they needed to be taken care of, they couldn't possibly help others, and we had very little support in what we were doing. Even the mental health community didn't believe we could do it. We had to prove ourselves before we got any funding, but within a couple of months, we were under a contract, and we did some of our own fundraising too ... we used to do a Vegas night! But my husband and I got too old to keep those up. It was a shame, but we have to think about fundraisers, we can get by from what we get from Health West, but just barely. It pays the rent and the utilities, and the credit card bill. We have done walkafunds, which has brought in some money. I have never seen us being a big-budget thing, this isn't for profit, and I wanted to make sure those involved kept control.

 

A member told me about many programs like Adult Foster Care Homes, "when they take away our responsibility; they take away our soul," and those words have always haunted me, so I wanted to give them responsibility back. And if they don't have it at home, they have it here. Several people have told me they were about to "check out", but that the Stand changed that. That's the members who are helping, making the difference, helping anyone who comes in, we are always checking in on each other, and then you can make that kind of difference. Life doesn't mean much when you're on your own. When you're just in your apartment and you're scared of going out, and you have no friends, and you're just seeing a doctor once a month, there isn't much to your life. There isn't much point sticking around, depression can get so bad, that many just want to end it. Spring times are the worst, I don't know why. Maybe it's because the earth is starting all over, but you're not, you're stuck.

 

When you have someone to nurture to care about, someone who cares if you're dead or alive, someone looking out for you, that matters. And then if you venture into the kitchen and make some sandwiches, and people compliment you and thank you, that matters! Then if you bring in a dessert, gosh EVERY one will think you're amazing. But little by little as you get to know people and care for them, life takes on a different meaning.

 

We laugh a lot here, that's really important. We go on adventures when we can afford them, which gives people something to look forward to, and when you go as a group, that builds more connections. One member told me he came here as an addict, coming out of a nasty habit, and he had nothing, since then he has an apartment, a fiance', a job, he's starting a business and he attributes that to us, and I think that's amazing. Another lady had a large habit, and she spent most of the day sleeping on the couch, but she was safe. Then one step at a time, she started rebuilding her life a little at a time, we had to get her birth certificate to get her social security card, we did all that one step at a time, and now she's working and doing well, and is engaged and plans to marry. So lots of nice stories. We have had a few engagements, and a marriage, that came out of here, so that's nice.

 

Some of these people have been friends for decades an have been MY family. It's when you see people succeed when you see people who shouldn't be alive and yet are doing very well. We have won awards and recognition but the proudest times are when you see people succeed.

​

We never wanted to be exclusive to the mental health community, but to be a place where people could heal. There's no one here who doesn't need people and friends, and when you make friends, that helps you grow. There's respect here and kindness here, and it's expected that that's how people should behave, and they do.

 

The Stand doesn't stay within these walls, people are helping drive each other to work, we go to each other's family's funerals, we're intertwined, we help each other and it doesn't stay within these walls. We have had several memorial services here and that's hard, but that's part of it. The more you care, the more it hurts when you lose people.

 

My life has been so enriched by the work I have done and it never gets boring, no matter how much you wish it would sometimes." 

​​

The above story was put into writing by Pat ApPaul, a Welsh Documentary Photographer based in Michigan USA.