Our Roots

Crossroad began with an idea of "what could be" in 1993. Twelve individuals were attending an afternoon program at the Day Centre of the Cape Breton Hospital. Dr. Gillian Leigh had visited Progress Place in Toronto and came to us, sharing her experience of this thing called "clubhouse". We visited Connections Clubhouse in Halifax and became inspired by their energy, sense of purpose and community. We started looking at ways we could bring some of that energy and focus to our program.


The Kitchen Club

Up until this point in the afternoon program, the hospital staff would put together a lunch tray for us and send it up us. We would enjoy the snack, leave the tray on the table and kitchen staff would come back and clear things away. This is where we started our journey towards clubhouse.

Committed to our vision, a small number of us started the "Kitchen Club". We began planning, shopping and preparing the snack trays that the group enjoyed at break time. Although this may seem like a small step, it was in fact, an instrumental change in how we saw ourselves. We started the move from "being taken care of" to "taking care of ourselves".

The Next Step

We started a Clubhouse Planning Committee, which included two members from the afternoon program, and together we developed all of the pieces we needed in order to open a club in Sydney. We formally celebrated the closure of the "afternoon" program at the hospital and invited those twelve individuals to apply to be our first clubhouse members. Of the twelve Day Centre clients, eight people chose to embark on this new clubhouse adventure. We held our first Membership Meeting in October of 1994.

Opening the Doors

Armed with buckets to clean and a sense of hope for the future, we moved into our first club, at 288 Bentinck St., Sydney, in May of 1995. We chose our name "Crossroads" and on June … 1995, we officially opened our doors.