Manistee Friendship Society celebrates 20th anniversary with open house
MANISTEE — The Manistee Friendship Society celebrates its 20th anniversary on Tuesday with an open house.
The Manistee Friendship Society is a nonprofit that helps with socialization, support, continuing education and activities for adults living with varying degrees of mental illness.
The society’s Executive Director Cassandra Kamaloski spoke about how it has grown and evolved over the years and has been able to serve residents of Manistee County.
Kamaloski, who started working for the friendship society 15 years ago and has been its executive director for seven years, said the organization was there for her at a time in her life when she needed it. She is grateful for the opportunity to give back.
“I am so thankful to be a part of it. It helped me at a time in my life when I needed support. And now I’m just so thankful that I can help other people get support,” Kamaloski said. “But we have grown so much. And I think it’s offering more of those classes to teach someone how to learn those tools and skills to kind of get through some of those life’s challenges that are really hard.”
Cassandra Kamaloski, executive director of the Manistee Friendship Society, talks about the changes that have occurred at the friendship society and societal perceptions about mental health in the 15 years she has worked for the friendship society.
Jeff Zide/News AdvocatePersonal experience
Kamaloski said she has personal experience in dealing with issues surrounding mental health or mental illness. That is also a key part of the friendship society’s operational philosophy. She also notes that small things can make a difference.
“(Just) meeting other people who have an understanding of what you’re going through … mental health … just bringing awareness around it (is helpful), like we’re not weird, we’re not scary. We’re not this or that,” Kamaloski said.
She noted that a combination of staff and board members actually having experience with mental health issues and support from the community has contributed to the success of the friendship society.
“All of our staff here and all of our board members had to have dealt with mental illness in their life to be able to work here or be on our board of directors. So we have an understanding of what people are going through. So just trying to break that stigma around it. And I think what has helped us a lot is the support from community partners,” Kamaloski said.
Kamaloski said that a majority of the society’s funding comes from Centra Wellness Network, and that the Manistee Friendship Society is a contract worker of the Centra Wellness Network.
Services
Beyond being a safe place for people with mental illness to express themselves, the friendship society offers a variety of services. Some of those services include a free laundry day, a lending library with self-help books, classrooms with computers, a small food pantry and different classes that are scheduled throughout the day on weekdays.
In addition, some less formal services are offered and Kamaloski said she helps out with that.
“I help (friendship society members or people who drop in) with any applications for housing benefits … we try to give away frozen vegetables and frozen meat as well. And then we do COVID-friendly small lunches during the day if someone needs something to eat because we do classes throughout the day. So sometimes people are here all day,” she said.
Kamaloski said that membership has grown and with more community outreach, the friendship society now has 300 members.
For more information on all the services that the Manistee Friendship Society offers, visit manisteefriendshipsociety.org.
