In August of 2004, a handful of people who had connected via the Icarus Project website started hanging out on Sundays under the arch in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, getting to know each other and talking about what having bipolar and related madness was like for each of us. It was as though the website had come to life in this whole new way: suddenly there were these living, breathing, heart-beating people sitting in the shade together. That togetherness is at the center of the support network that's formed here in New York, and it's at the heart of all the burgeoning Icarus support networks that are starting, or untapped, all over the world.

The New York City support group met all winter long, in coffee shops and restaurants, on stoops and benches. When we couldn't find a place to sit, we'd bundle up and take walks, searching out all the ways we could to be together. For a lot of us, it was the first time we'd ever been able to connect with other people about having a "mental illness," the first time we'd ever met people who experience the world in the ways that we do. It is important, in this world, to not be alone. Breaking the alienation of mental health struggles is a fundamental aspect of wellbeing that is found in the outreach of the Icarus support network here in New York. It is also important, in this world, to have a home, and that's what The Icarus Project has found at Fountain House.

Now grounded at a desk on the fourth floor of an old building with a whole complicated story of its own, The Icarus Project is beginning new ventures and launching the dreams that have been hovering since its inception. We're working with Fountain House's Young Adult Program, bringing with us the invigorating life force and radical vision necessary to sustain the clubhouse model. Fountain House has its roots in very much the same soil as The Icarus Project, and all of us "” members of The Icarus Project and Fountain House alike "” are finding that TIP is reminding Fountain House of its origins while Fountain House simultaneously offers TIP access to the resources necessary to carry our collective visions into the future.

Founded in 1948 by a group of former patients from New York's mental hospitals, the members of Fountain House decided to join together, rather than retreating in isolation, and support one another in finding work and adjusting to life beyond hospital walls. Today Fountain House has expanded to become a worldwide organization, with more than 350 clubhouses internationally. The Icarus Project's crucial focus on empowering people struggling with their mental health to build support networks resonates so strongly with Fountain House's mission of "providing opportunities for members to live, work and learn, while contributing their talents through a community of mutual support" that Fountain House initiated a partnership with The Icarus Project in October 2004. Fountain House is providing us with guidance, resources, and a physical home from which to coordinate our outreach efforts and strengthen our organization. In addition, the education unit at Fountain House has been particularly interested in our project's ability to reach underserved populations "”particularly youth "” and will be offering us contacts and support as we launch a program to help students organize support networks on college campuses in New York City.

Beginning with NYU, Hunter College, and LaGuardia University, The Icarus Project will offer a series of workshops in the Fall aimed at promoting dialogue and encouraging students to start their own groups. Most people with bipolar disorder are diagnosed in their late teens and early twenties, making colleges a logical place to implement our outreach efforts. Over the course of this summer we'll be developing workshop models based on the events that Sascha and Ashley have been leading around the country, and wil be compiling strategies for starting support groups based on existing Icarus groups in New York City and other towns across America.

The difference between August of 2004 and today is that we're spending the Sundays of this spring and the coming summer on the beautiful back patio of Fountain House, supporting each other from the comfort of our new home. Our partnership with Fountain House has widened the scope of the work we're able to do in all kinds of exciting directions. This August, we'll be doing the same thing we began in 2004: being together. Only this year, we're in a position to bring people like us together in communities all over the world, finding homes at clubhouses and in colleges, coffee shops and community centers. The possibilities seem endless.

You can find out more about Fountain House by visiting their website, www.fountainhouse.org.