Job-training club marks 25 years

For nearly two decades, Tom Chandler has been part of an exclusive club. It charges no fees but offers plenty of benefits to the 46-year-old.

“What brings me back every day is that it’s safe and friendly,” said Chandler, diagnosed with bipolar disorder. “We’re not clients here. We’re members.”

Each day, Chandler and dozens of others visit the Evergreen Club, a day center for people with serious mental illness.

Founded in 1981 as a program of Spokane Mental Health, the Evergreen Club has worked with more than 1,200 people. The club provides job training, education and a social outlet for 250 people with mental illness each year.

“Our belief is that every person needs a place to go where you feel accepted and have friends,” said Sue Grant, program administrator for the club. “We believe all of us feel better if we are productive and doing something.”

On Wednesday evening, at a festive 25th anniversary party, Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick moved from table to table, shaking hands and introducing herself.

“I was invited and I wanted to come,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s important to me to meet everyone in this community.”

Kirkpatrick’s presence had the room abuzz after a year in which the relationship between the police and some in the mental health community had soured.

Particularly, the death this year of Otto Zehm, a 36-year-old janitor and longtime Evergreen member, reverberated through the community. Zehm died in March after being restrained by police who suspected him of a robbery he did not commit.

Don Crippen, a member of the club’s advisory board, said he hoped the police chief could help repair the rift.

“I’m very impressed,” Crippen said. “She came down here herself, rather than sending someone else. I’m definitely impressed.”

The Evergreen Club, which faced a potential closure in 1999 because of funding problems, began as a one-day-a-week endeavor and quickly grew into an all-purpose community center for people dealing with mental illness.

It focused not just on recovery, but on helping members develop the skills to return to society. Job training has been an integral part, Grant said.

Since 1982, Evergreen Club members have earned more than $4.2 million, including about $350,000 last year alone. Two dozen other members worked as volunteers last year.

For Laurel White, a 36-year-old college graduate with bipolar disorder, the support and training gave her the confidence to take a temporary job clearing tables at the Longhorn Barbecue.

When she started, White said, “I didn’t have the confidence to bus tables. These people helped me learn that I don’t have to be perfect to work. Everybody has a bad day once in a while.”

Today, White is a clerical worker for a social service nonprofit.

Such successes seemed improbable in the early 1980s, when some worried that people with persistent mental illness would never be able to hold jobs or daily responsibilities.

In May 1982, only three jobs had been found for 250 club members, according to an article in the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

The club gradually persuaded employers, in part by guaranteeing that on days when its members were sick, the jobs would be filled with volunteer replacements – including its own staffers.

“Once employers start working with us, they usually love us,” Grant said. “But it can be hard to get in the front door.”

The club, located at 2102 E. Sprague Ave., also serves as a social center. With a thrift shop and a pool table, it draws about 60 people a day. The club serves coffee for 30 cents a cup and a full meal – with beverage – for $1.50. Only members are eligible.

Chandler, who works nights as a dishwasher, takes bus No. 90 each day to the club and spends about six hours there. It has, he said, helped bridge the gap between those with mental illness and society as a whole.

“We need to be treated as humans,” Chandler said.” We didn’t wake up one morning and ask for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. But there’s nothing to be afraid of.”