As our name implies, the Communications and Employment (C&E) department is made up of two distinct yet interrelated pieces. About two years ago we decided, as a clubhouse, to move the “Employment Room” up to the more prominent second floor, from its former space in the basement where it was relatively hidden. This room was the place where employment-related meetings happened, job postings were listed, etc. At the time there was no employment department per se and all staff were integrated into other departments throughout the club. After moving the employment room to the second floor where it shared space with the (then) Clerical Plus department, we decided to integrate all those staff with specific, employment-related components to their jobs, into only the Clerical Plus department. Upon doing so, a couple of things became clear: 1. We had too many staff in that department, 2. We had too much and too varied work, 3. Our space was overly congested, and 4. Because the “clerical” part of the work was well established and structured, the employment work was more neglected. As a solution to these problems and as a means of making employment even more prominent in our club, we decided to create the employment annex within C&E. In order to adequately address and highlight the issues from each of the two areas into this self study, we have separated them out and refer to them, respectively, as “C&E” and the “Annex.

“C&E is the heart and soul of the clubhouse.” Sue Steinback

”C&E Atmosphere and Function
C&E is a lively and dynamic part of our clubhouse. We boast the highest member participation rate and are proud of the fact that so many members choose to work in our department. C&E is located on the 2nd floor in a bright, sunny area that is conducive to members and staff working side by side. We are open 8:30 - 4:30 Monday through Thursday and 8:30 - 4:00 on Fridays, with a half hour break for lunch.
C&E produces the Yahara Journal and the Daily Chronicle, the faces of Yahara House most often seen by the larger community and local leaders. The Yahara Journal goes out to almost 700 people in our clubhouse and community. The Daily Chronicle is e-mailed to an ever-increasing list of recipients at our Mental Health Center, besides being circulated within the club and used in creating our visitor packets. In addition to producing these two important publications, we also do photocopying for the entire club; creating and circulating greeting cards for all occasions; designing banners and posters to announce club activities; metering mail, including bulk mailings to the entire clubhouse community; word processing; maintaining and ordering office supplies used throughout the club; updating the mailing list; recycling paper from throughout the building; helping members learn basic word processing and computer skills; and, of course, cleaning and maintaining our own space.

“C&E is where you go when you want to work because there’s always something going on.” J.H.

C&E Strengths
We feel we have much to be proud of in C&E. One of the things we do well is providing a variety of work that promotes members’ strengths and talents and suits different interests and abilities. For example, members are involved in everything from practicing the most basic computer skills or emptying the trash or filling the copy machine to editing and laying out our newsletter or creating a spreadsheet or designing our web page. We have several members with high level computer skills (that most of the staff don’t have), so member leadership comes quite naturally and authentically. We also have numerous members who have distinct roles within the department and take great pride and ownership in those roles. Just for a few examples, one member tracks our member participation and facilitates our weekly department meetings, another updates the mailing list and records members’ pay information to send to Social Security, and yet another is creating an employment database.

“There’s always an opportunity to learn new skills from staff and, even more often, from other members.” Laila Crowe

Another strength of C&E is our sense of camaraderie and support. We enjoy sharing our lives, our work and a good laugh. We do a very good job of reaching out to folks we haven’t seen recently, as well as celebrating successes and supporting one another through challenges. Each week in our department meeting we go through our list of members and decide, as a group, who would appreciate an outreach call or card.

C&E has led the way in two particular clubhouse efforts, First, we reinstituted weekly discussions of clubhouse standards (which hadn’t happened for many years). Secondly, we created a push within the clubhouse for all departments to create more member leadership roles -- specifically by having a member and staff “co-facilitate” department work each day.
Because of the detailed nature of much of the work in C&E, it is both necessary and common to see member-to-member support and teaching on a regular basis. Members teach each other how to use the card-making software, how to operate the copy and fax machines, and where to get the supplies to clean the bathroom. In addition, we have a set of well written, easy to follow job descriptions for most of our common tasks, so that members can also try a new job on their own.
“C&E is an exciting place to work. A good part about C&E is how we all work together. We are friendly and productive.” Rick Dixon

C&E Challenges, Goals and Areas for Improvement
One of our current challenges is to develop more consistent afternoon work that is suitable for a variety of skill levels. The flow of our work can vary significantly and tends to be more concentrated toward morning jobs. This can be a problem in the afternoons when there are a lot of members looking for a chance to contribute.

Another goal that we have is to do a better job of supporting our members who are in school. As a department we offer to type school-related papers for members. We also welcome students to study in our space, which often leads to peer support -- both in regard to the actual subject of study and in regard to coping with school itself. On occasion we have offered some impromptu tutoring as well. However, we’d like to provide more predictable, comprehensive support to our students and publicize it more effectively within the club.

Another issue concerns making optimal use of our space. The main department area can get quite congested when lots of members are present. Other areas (like hallway desks) are too often seen as primarily staff space that tend to be less accessible to members.
One area that is both a strength and a challenge for us is our desktop publishing. We have produced, in addition to the monthly Yahara Journal, such varied projects as the invitation to our yearly “Yahara House Works” celebration, brochures highlighting various aspects of our club, a collection of Yahara House recipes, and an Arts Journal. All of these projects use sophisticated software with the capacity to produce professional quality products. However, there is a relatively small group of staff and members with the knowledge to use it. We’d like to expand upon that group in order to increase the level of member involvement.

Finally, an ongoing question in our minds is how (or if) to better integrate the Employment Annex with C&E. Currently, there is a distinctly separate feeling to the two, though there is some back and forth flow of work, staff, and members. Because the Annex is still in its fledgling stage, we want to use the resources of C&E to continue supporting it but we also realize that over time we may decide to make it its own department.