July 28, 2004
Kandu Island provides safe harbor
Drop-in center for people with mental illness, physical handicaps or developmental disabilities
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Providing a safe environment, acceptance and peer support, Kandu Island is a new drop-in center for people with a mental illness, physical handicap or developmental disability.
Geared to residents of Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties, Kandu Island celebrated its grand opening Saturday with a party featuring the music of Canadian folksinger James Gordon. Dozens of attendees mingled, played games, toured the facility and snacked during the open house.
"We have a focus here on what you can do, not what you can't do," said Duane Fox, operations manager of Kandu Island. "This has been planned for over a year and we're proud of what we've done."
The center informally opened on March 32, as the founders jokingly dub of it's end-of-March debut. Consumers of mental health services helped found, establish and now run the organization. The center is open 28 hours a week and monthly visitors average 171 attendees.
Numbers aside, the bottom line is that participants are happy.
They meet for movies, play Bingo and board games, learn origami, use the pool table and enjoy a substantial snack each of the four days the center is open. Plans are being made for a bowling team, which will also integrate the mentally ill in the community.
"It is really a comfortable place to be, you don't feel any pressure here," said Gary, taking a break from playing pool on Saturday. "I myself have a mental illness, not anything major, but it is very therapeutic here. I like being involved in it."
Eugene Fox, not related to Duane Fox, is considered Kandu Island's founder. In addition to providing a safe and fun environment, he hopes the center will help counter stigmas about mental illness.
"Just because we're mentally ill doesn't mean we're lazy or stupid," Eugene Fox noted. "I started this whole thing basically because there are people out there who are mentally ill who need a place to gather"
The unstructured, drop-in setting is modeled after the Justice in Mental Health Organization, or JIMHO for short, based in Lansing. Brian Wellwood, director of JIMHO who attended the grand opening, said that when his father Richard started the drop-in concept in 1980 it was a radical idea.
"It was very unusual because most of the programs back then were day treatment and you were always told what to do and when," Brian Wellwood said. "My dad was pretty rebellious to that."
JIMHO is affiliated with approximately 50 drop-in centers around the state, with a goal of eventually having one per county. A drop-in center differs from a clubhouse, whose model is a work-ordered day for participants with activities directed by treatment plans and goals.
At a drop-in center like Kandu Island, the consumer decides what to do when.
"I've seen so many people come out of their shell at the drop-in centers, it is just incredible," Wellwood noted. "I'm just thrilled at how it's all come together up here."
While state budgets have been cut in the past few years, consumers have used creative funding to open drop-in centers. For example, Kandu Island's organizing entity, the Council of Volunteers and Mentors, Inc., received a federal block grant of $75,000 for the first year. That amount of money diminishes over the years, prodding a move to self-funding.
Northern Lakes Community Mental Health, the seven-county state agency that includes Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties, covers operating costs and provided administrative training and support.
"Our goal is to attain self-sufficiency," Duane Fox said. "We are looking at private funding and other grants or awards."
The Kandu Island Drop-In Center, 3003 Garfield Road, is situated two blocks south of S. Airport Road. A Cherriot bus stop is located nearby on Oak Terrace Drive. Hours are Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. For more information, call the center at 932-1590.