The Road to Recovery - How Vail Place helps - New Page

Does the image on the left bear some resemblance to your life’s journey? Some bumps in the road, curves, changes in direction, a helping hand from others? Most of us share some aspects on our “road,” and yet it’s unique.

The same is true for Vail Place members, every day, on their Road to Recovery.

Vail Place serves as a ‘base camp,’ a ‘field headquarters,’ an ‘outfitter’ and a ‘pit stop’ for people on this recovery path. It is a community for fellow travelers. At the same time, it honors the individuality of each person and the non-linear nature of his or her journey. It helps provide the services to meet their needs, the guidance to enhance their abilities, and the encouragement to develop their potentials and keep on traveling.

Our members also encounter some very challenging obstacles along their way.

In addition to living with the symptoms of a mental illness, members experience the lack of understanding, the discrimination, and the stigma that go with it. They are also prone to experience unemployment, homelessness, social isolation, poor health, and a lack of confidence and self-esteem as a result. Vail Place provides a safe haven – a warm, and welcoming environment with supportive, meaningful, and understanding relationships. It is a place where they are seen as a whole person. It is also a place where they find that they are not alone. They come to see themselves as part of a group, with the companionship, the relationships, and the solidarity that group life offers.

And, as you can also see from the roadmap above, the Road to Recovery has a center - the bench and the apple tree in the middle of the map. It symbolizes that wherever our members' journeys may take them, they travel around a center . . . the center of community and support that Vail Place provides. While each person's path has its unique twists and turns, there is a central place to return - to reconnect with others, to gather together, and to belong.

Vail Place is a community center – based on the Clubhouse Model – where its members nourish, renew, and fulfill the hope that recovery is possible. It is also a vital center in the community at large, making the recovery journey with thousands of people for almost 30 years now. Their hopes continue to be fulfilled with the support of many community partners along the way.