Peter Kramer
May is Mental Health Month and this year’s theme is “Get Connected.†The importance of social connectedness to good mental health has led some of us to consider Carrboro’s role as a leader in innovative programs that promote mental health wellness.
Carrboro is home to, among other organizations, the Mental Health Association of Orange County, the Caramore Community and Club Nova. For example, for two decades, the latter “clubhouse†program has supported its members’ efforts to improve the quality of their lives. At the homey house on West Main Street, Club Nova members drop by daily to socialize, develop personal skills, improve their employment outlook and more.
I recently asked some people about the relationship of the town to these programs. Karen Dunn, the long-time executive director of Club Nova, wrote me that “being welcomed before we ever moved in to 103 West Main Street almost twenty-one years ago set the tone. And the tone hasn’t changed since then. The leadership and citizens of Carrboro are open, progressive and inclusive. For lack of a better word, Carrboro is a funky town, a community that as a whole dances to an alternate tune/beat.â€
Club Nova board president Esphur Foster told me that Carrboro is “an artistic community with a capacity for loving all kinds of people, a town that embraces humanness.â€
Orange County commissioner Moses Carey, who also serves on the OPC Area Board, said, “There’s something about Orange County, and Carrboro in particular, that embraces people who may first appear to be ‘different.’ We integrate persons with disabilities into the everyday life of the community. All of us want to feel as if we can make a contribution.â€
David Chapman, the executive director of the Caramore Community on Smith Level Road, said, “People in Carrboro see ‘people with disabilities’ as ‘people’ first — there’s less tendency to judge differences.â€
Others cited examples of Carrboro’s rich capacity for acceptance and understanding, traits that enhance the possibilities of connecting to each other.
Peter Kramer works for the OPC Area Program in Chapel Hill.