John

When John was in his late teens, his family was at a loss as to how to best support him through his mental illness.  John struggled to keep a job and says he often felt lonely and unmotivated. Once John found Tasks Unlimited, he found the stability that has allowed him to become self-reliant, of which he is deeply proud.  

Tasks Unlimited provides supported employment, housing and recovery services for people with mental illness so that they can achieve a full life with the rights and responsibilities of adults in our society.  “Like anyone, Tasks’ clients desire stable long-term employment with good wages. They’re proud of their ability to be self-sufficient and active members of their communities and we’re proud of them,” says Karen Johnston, Executive Director.

At Tasks, clients work together and live together in homes, which they call lodges.  The residents support each other just as a family would, cooking meals for each other, giving advice to each other, making certain everyone is taking their medication, running errands together, having daily check-ins to see how each member is doing, and sharing household duties.  Social connection replaces social isolation, a major issue for people with mental illness.

Two years ago, the loss of a government contract threatened the continued existence of the lodges in Ramsey County.  Many of the residents of those lodges had been with Tasks for over 20 years. A grant from Aroha Philanthropies allowed all 54 clients to remain in their jobs with vocational support and in their lodges.

Tasks is proud to report that during the current year, 100% of clients were employed in stable employment 6 months after they were placed by Tasks, and 98% of clients were able to stay out of the hospital.  

Tasks does not believe there is a quick fix to the challenges people with mental illness face.  Instead, Tasks provides long-term stability to its clients – precisely what they’ve done for John for the past 25 years.

“Communal living at Tasks is much better for me than apartment living. The loneliness gets to be too much. At Tasks, I always have someone to talk to.” – John, Tasks Unlimited client and resident

by T Bonner

Explore Your Creativity

Now, while we’re at home, people everywhere are discovering the joy of making something entirely new from what we already have inside ourselves. We hope that these 90 seconds will inspire you to learn, create, and share a story, a dance, a song or an image, as the people you’ll meet here are doing.

Please share this short video with your friends, family and colleagues. We can all use this message right now. It’s pure pleasure.

by T Bonner

Richard Hood

“We don’t need condescending ‘thumb-twiddling’ pastimes. We need community, respect, rigor and real interaction on sophisticated levels with imaginative, involved people who expect us to be the same.  This program gave us all of that,” declared Richard Hood, participant of Johnson City Public Library’s Seeding Vitality Arts^® program. Richard, a retired literature professor, living alone in rural Greene County, Tennessee, heard about the Bird Sculpting class on his local NPR station and enrolled. After the class ended, Richard wrote this powerful letter about the value of the program.

“Loneliness is a chronic problem for the elderly, and, though I never would have dreamed I’d be one of the ‘lonely-aging,’ I turn-out to be a fairly typical example of the suddenly-solitary old geezer. After a long and happy career teaching, I suddenly found myself out of work (retired), out of family (my daughter moved to Texas, and I lost my wife), out of community contacts (I moved to Tennessee from Ohio to help-out my 100-year-old father) and basically out-of-life. I always cherished solitude; but I never realized how fine the line between solitude and loneliness could be.

“So I heard about this sculpting class, and forced myself to sign up for it. I’ve never taken an art class in my life, and I was in just the state of mind to turn up my nose at something called ‘Artful Aging.’ Nevertheless, I was pretty desperate, and this sounded doable.

“Well, the short version is that I met a bunch of vibrant, caring and creative people, with a teacher, Angelique, who knew just how to give us permission to try new things and how to steer us, gently, toward some actual technical knowledge. I found the class to be demanding and sophisticated in just the right way. . . It was no “Basket Weaving Time-Killer” course for people with nothing to do. It was a genuine art course that asked a lot, and gave a lot to a group of people who could handle it. I had expected—perhaps planned—to miss various sessions; but I went to every class, took work home and turned up on off-days almost every time Angelique was available. This, even though I am an hour’s drive away.

“My classmates are interesting, creative people, who gradually opened up a place for me to feel accepted, befriended and challenged to live up to their standards. It has always struck me that dear friends do more than ‘let you be yourself;’ they push you to be a better self, and they require you to engage in the world with them. This was exactly the kind of atmosphere, constantly, in this class. It was supposed to be ‘fun,’ but it was, in fact, fun because it mattered. (And, as a general truth, I think this is the only way we can attack this chronic loneliness in elders: provide a place where we can be taken seriously enough to have to work hard according to high standards. Don’t you think?)

“I have a new set of interests, a new community of people, a new interest in BEING a part of my community. Since our class ended, I have made three fairly major pieces based on what I have learned and I expect to keep doing this stuff . . . it is, in fact, FUN, in the finest sense of the word.” - Richard Hood, Student

by T Bonner