The Clubhouse model of psychosocial rehabilitation is a community mental health service model that helps people with a history of serious mental illness rejoin society and maintain their place in it; it builds on people's strengths and provides mutual support, along with professional staff support, for people to receive prevocational work training, educational opportunities, and social support. The model was created by Fountain House, one of the prime settings for what would, in the space of forty years, become the type specimen of the clubhouse model. Its validity is moderated and approved by Clubhouse International. The model, which is non-residential, has its roots in a support group formed in 1943 inside Rockland Psychiatric Center in New York; when people were discharged they met in New York City, and eventually formalized their group in a house in Manhattan that was called "Fountain House". It was "the first psychiatric rehabilitation center of its kind in the United States." The group hired professional staff for the first time in 1955; together staff and members created a set of day programs that, along with the member-centered approach, became the model for other clubhouses. There is an international clubhouse network, to which member clubs pay dues and which provides accreditation; standards were developed in 1989 and accreditation began in 1992. History The clubhouse model has its roots in a support group formed in 1943 inside Rockland Psychiatric Center in New York; when people were discharged they met in New York City, initially on the steps of the New York Public Library to continue supporting each other. The group called itself We Are Not Alone (WANA). With the help of volunteers, the group was able to buy a brownstone on West 47th Street in Manhattan, which had a fountain; in 1948, when the group formed a non-profit, it named itself Fountain House. Elizabeth Schermerhorn helped raise the funds to buy the house and set up a foundation to support the group. In 1955, when the organization first hired professional staff, John Beard, a pioneer in Community mental health services from Detroit, was hired as director and formalized many of the programs, but keeping the focus on the community as a source of mutual support for members. One of the key programs instituted at the time was a prevocational work-readiness program, which placed people in temporary part-time jobs to help them prepare to find permanent work. Fountain