Our History

Submitted by icarus on Sat, 05/20/2006 - 3:53pm

The Icarus Project was founded in September 2002 as the dream and volunteer effort of Sascha Altman DuBrul and Ashley McNamara, two writers and activists diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. Our first project was the creation of a community-based website, https://site.icarusprojectarchive.org, to provide a place to discuss and connect around the paradox of "navigating the space between brilliance and madness." In April, 2003, The Icarus Project entered the fiscal sponsorship of FJC, the Foundation for Jewish Charities, a non-profit organization which operates a Grant Assistance Program to provide financial oversight to budding non-profit projects. For the last two years FJC has generously received and distributed grants and donations on our behalf, allowing us to grow as an organization while preparing to secure our own non-profit status.

The dialogues that quickly began emerging on our website encompass a range of experience that is not represented in any other web communities or publications. The clinical, stigmatizing language so common to contemporary discussion of mental health problems, combined with narrow visions of treatment, alienates many who are seeking help "” particularly young and highly creative people, and those who identify with alternative cultures. The Icarus Project has evolved to offer real alternatives. Through our website, publications, and outreach programs, we provide a framework for exploring the experience of mental illness that is full of hope, insight, and creativity. Our approach creates room for conventional pharmaceutical treatment and non-traditional approaches to coexist, and encourages informed self-determination rather than allegiance to any one model. Over the last few years, this vision has been resonating with the thousands of people who have joined our website, attended our workshops, purchased our publications, and begun forming regional Icarus groups.

We began expanding the dialogues taking place on our website beyond the computer screen in March 2004. After publishing the pilot edition of our first book, Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness; A Reader and Roadmap of Bipolar Worlds, we took our vision of mental health on the road. We sold out of 2000 books in 7 months and completed two speaking tours of America in which we led discussions about mental illness and mental health at venues ranging from colleges to community centers. The tremendous positive response has made it clear to us that there is an overwhelming need for dialogue and support structures that actually reach out to youth and other underserved populations.

In recognition of our model's vast potential to serve these populations, Fountain House, the country's first mental health clubhouse and one of the most well-respected models of community support and psychiatric rehabilitation in America, has initiated a partnership with The Icarus Project. Over the coming years Fountain House has offered to provide The Icarus Project with technical assistance, office space in Manhattan, and both in-kind and monetary support to make sure this vital work continues.

2004 ended with a bang. In early December we opened our first artshow, "Radical Visions from Bipolar Worlds: An Artshow and Community Gathering," which assembled the work of 40 Icarus Project members, as well as bringing together a whole cast of volunteers and NYC Icarus group members who worked together to make the event happen. The show, which hung at ABCNoRio for a month and a half, was a huge success. Later that month The Ittleson Foundation decided to accept our grant application and award us $80, 000 over two years to develop and disseminate nationwide the Icarus model of peer-based mental health support. In order to receive the second installment of this grant, we need to raise at least $35, 000 in matching funds by the end of 2004. We quickly began implementing our plans to create a nationwide Icarus Project support network and are looking for more funding to help us complete this work.

To find out more about our current projects, which include developing the NYC support network and completing our next book, Underground Roots and Magic Spells; A Guide To Creating Mental Health Support Networks in Our Communities, take a look at our publications section and our support network homepage! To find out more about our organization and the people involved, check out Our Organization.

To download a beautiful printed version of this text, check out our press kit.