Mental health support group finds new home in Clarksville

Sept. 08--CLARKSVILLE -- After more than a month of limbo, a local support group for people struggling with mental illness and addiction has found a new home, and it's opening its doors to the community this weekend.

Nancy Garner founded DOVE Support Ministry in 2012 with the help of a grant from the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction. In 2015, she opened a peer support center in New Albany to expand the organization's reach. Garner said DOVE lost that space in July when the lease renewal was denied. She said it's been hard to find a new space because of the stigma attached to mental illness.

"I was getting rejected everywhere I went," said Garner, who has lived in Jeffersonville since about 1989.

Garner solicited prayers on DOVE's Facebook page before she checked out a property in Clarksville last month. On Aug. 29, she posted a photo of herself holding the keys to DOVE's new peer support center at 827 Eastern Boulevard. This Sunday and Monday, the community can tour the center during an open house and learn more about DOVE -- an acronym for "Discovering Our Victory and Empowerment."

As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who has been diagnosed with mental illnesses, Garner said she never thought she'd be in the position to help others. She's now a certified recovery specialist in Indiana and uses her "lived experiences" to help others who have experienced trauma or mental illness. About 80 percent of the time, she said, addiction is also part of the equation.

Garner stressed that DOVE's peer support center is not a treatment facility and it does not provide therapy, but DOVE volunteers can informally refer people to professional services. But because professionals don't necessarily have the shared experience of mental illness or trauma, DOVE can offer a unique gateway to recovery.

"We walk with our lived experiences and we share what has helped us," Garner said.

Another DOVE volunteer, Mimi Brand, Pekin, is in the process of becoming a certified recovery specialist like Garner. Brand said she's been through the required week of training in Indianapolis and is awaiting test results. She first discovered DOVE online and took part in an eight-week workshop with her family. Brand said she was a victim of domestic violence for 13 years and the trauma stuck with her, even after getting remarried. DOVE's workshop, she said, was "amazing" for her and her family.

"I think it's huge because sometimes you just don't know what steps to take or if you don't have the confidence or the courage or whatever it is that has happened to you," Brand said. "There's a lot of encouragement in the groups."

Garner said the new center will have set hours during certain days of the week. During those hours, people can walk in, have a cup of coffee, take a seat and connect with peers. The goal of the workshops and peer meetings is to help people identify goals and ways to recovery. Because the center did not receive grant money this year, Garner said there may be a small fee for one-on-one peer support, but the cost would be minimal. Visitors to the open house can make donations and everyone is welcome to stop by.

"You don't have to have a calling to support this," Garner said.

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