After nearly four years as executive director for Summit County Clubhouse, Amber Mackay is stepping down and going national.
“I will start a program with Clubhouse International that will promote employment,” she said. “In the Clubhouse model, we have a statistical outcome we try to meet, which is placing 50% of Clubhouse members or participants back to work every year. Some Clubhouses have been struggling to meet that outcome for a while. So I will go to them to help build employment programs. And strengthen the Clubhouses.”
Clubhouse International is a global organization of 330 facilities, including Summit County Clubhouse, that share a mission to eliminate the stigma of mental illness by helping and training its members to explore education and employment opportunities, share talents and skills, volunteer and socialize.
Mackay has spent 3 ½ of her 14 years working in the Clubhouse model, and during her tenure in the Wasatch Back, she helped establish the Summit County Clubhouse, secure its brick-and-mortar home near Quinn’s Junction and continue its programming through the coronavirus pandemic.
Finding a permanent home was a huge deal for Summit County Clubhouse, because space is always a challenge, according to Mackay.
“It’s expensive, and we have specific needs — kitchen, work space and other nuanced areas,” she said. “Many Clubhouses struggle with this for many years. So to get a space within six months thanks to Pat and Tom Grossman and the Park City Community Foundation, we were so lucky.”
In addition to securing the building, Mackay led Summit County Clubhouse through a capital campaign to help pay for the building’s renovations as well as the renovation itself — at the same time.
“There were times when we were hanging out in our garages trying to work, or working at the public library, because we couldn’t go to the house while it was being renovated,” she said with a laugh. “We were still trying to carry out our programs and provide some sort of consistency for our members and engage in the work. Looking back two years out, I wonder how I got the organization through that. So I think that was my proudest moment of being up here, only because it was the most difficult.”
During that time, Mackay and the Summit County Clubhouse were met with some resistance from some members of the community who didn’t want the facility in their neighborhood, due to misconceptions regarding mental illness.
“We dealt with that ‘not-in-my-backyard’ situation, but I expected it,” she said. “I was sad and upset that there was that response to the community, but instead of getting bitter, we decided we weren’t going to respond to the anger with anger. We decided to use the situation as an opportunity to educate the community about mental illness and what we do to help. Our goal was and still is to create a safe environment, not only in the Clubhouse, but in the community, for our members.”
COVID-19 threw another challenge that could have been a roadblock for others, but not for Mackay.
“We started six months before the pandemic,” she said. “So it was pretty pixie-dust-ish for this young organization to be able to come together and formulate a strategy, and have the community rally around with funds so we could bring on staff that didn’t need training because they have worked in Clubhouse before.”
Mackay will always be grateful to the community, especially the local governments and organizations, such as Park City Municipal and the City Council, as well as the Summit County Council and the Summit County Mental Health Alliance.
“I feel throughout the time I’ve been with the Clubhouse the community has shown up in so many ways,” she said. “There are so many people that I’m thankful for who support me as a person, and as a professional trying to bring this model and program to Summit County.”
One of Mackay’s biggest honors of her years directing the Summit County Clubhouse was being asked to speak, along with Matt Rutan, one of her members, at the Clubhouse International seminar last year in Baltimore.
“It was in front of 600 people from 15 countries, and we were asked to speak because Clubhouse International recognized Summit County Clubhouse as a great start-up success story,” she said. “They wanted us to share our story, starting with our humble beginnings.”
Mackay’s work in establishing Summit County Clubhouse started when she joined the Clubhouse model while she was at the University of Utah, getting a degree in social work.
“My dad was a psych nurse, and he was a lot of the reason why I went into the helping profession,” she said. “He told me I should go work for Valley Behavioral Health, where he worked, in Salt Lake.”
Mackay sent in applications there, because she was interested in forensic social work, but also sent resumes to other organizations, including Alliance House, the Salt Lake City facility of Clubhouse International.
“I didn’t intend to work for Clubhouse, but I didn’t get the forensic job,” she said. “I was very disappointed, but I took the Clubhouse job. My intention was to work there for a year and then go back to college to get my masters degree.”
Mackay changed her plans shortly after starting at Alliance House.
“I found it was a model of positivity,” she said. “We were working to get people back into their lives, education and employment, rather than the crisis side of things. So I decided I was going to spend my time here and wasn’t going to go back to college.”
Mackay went from being a staff member to assistant director, then landing the interim executive director role twice, before establishing the Summit County Clubhouse.
“While working in Salt Lake City, I saw a lot of groups that came down from Summit County to participate in our programs,” she said. “Over the years, there were talks about starting a Clubhouse in Summit County, but things never came to fruition.”
That changed a little more than four years ago when Ed and Lynne Rutan, the founders of Connect Summit County, a local mental health resource, and Aaron Newman, the director of behavioral health at the Summit County Health Department, made a commitment to start the Summit County Clubhouse.
“I was a little skeptical, but also excited, because I wanted to see a Clubhouse in Summit County as long as I have been part of the Clubhouse model,” Mackay said. “I was at a point of my life where I was ready to take on a challenge, and help make a change.”
While Summit County Clubhouse searches for a new executive director, the nonprofit will be led by former board member Melissa Flores, who had nothing but positive things to say about Mackay.
“There is no one that I could tell you has more understanding and true commitment to operating within the Clubhouse standards for the success of the members than Amber,” she said.
Barbara Bretz, chair of the Summit County Clubhouse board, also praised Mackay for her diligence as executive director.
“Amber has had a long career affiliation with Clubhouse International, and she has been a font of information about the model, the operating process, the standards and everything related to Clubhouse,” she said. “Her passion for the Clubhouse model is what motivated us, as a task force, to pursue the possibility of establishing a Clubhouse in Summit County.”
Mackay, who will mostly work in her new Clubhouse International role from Salt Lake City, hopes the community will continue to support the Summit County Clubhouse.
“I hope the community will continue to have those conversations and normalize mental health, because this is something that is so valuable and will be for years to come,” she said.