“It’s inviting people into community and it’s breaking stigma,” said Meg Pipe of Venture House, which manages four clubhouses—free, public spaces where adults with severe mental illness can take part in programs and connect with others—in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.

One of Venture House’s mental health clubhouses in the Bronx, pictured here in August of 2025. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

In August, New York City announced that it would double its network of mental health clubhouses operating across the five boroughs—free, public spaces where adults with severe mental illness can take part in programs and connect with others.

It was the first time the city expanded its clubhouse program in nearly three decades, officials said at the time. But New York is no stranger to the model, which started here in the 1940s and is now in use internationally, with more than 300 operating across the United States alone, according to Meg Pipe of Venture House, a mental health agency that manages four clubhouse locations in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.

Pipe sat down for a recent interview with Kadisha Davis of the “Hear Our Voices” podcast, which shares stories, resources and information about family homelessness in New York City (the podcast is produced by the Family Homelessness Coalition, whose members include Citizens’ Committee for Children, a City Limits funder).

“It’s a nonclinical setting—so it’s not treatment, it’s not therapy,” Pipe said of the clubhouse sites, which are open daily and provide member-led activities that can vary widely depending on participants’ interests, and can include things like art, music, cooking or workforce training. “It’s this supportive program where members come in and they work side by side with staff in all operations of the clubhouse.”

Some 783,000 New York State residents have a serious mental illness, including 1 of every 9 New Yorkers who are unhoused, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “When you’re in shelter, that alone [can make you] feel isolated,” Davis said.

Clubhouses aim to address that social isolation, according to Pipe. “It’s inviting people into community and it’s breaking stigma,” she said. “Life is hard and we need each other. I think that’s just the beautiful thing of clubhouse —that you’re known, and people care, and people are paying attention.”

You can listen to the rest of their conversation—the first part of two segments—below.

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