by Matthew Milliken, mmilliken@heraldsun.com, 419-6603

Durham - A mental health provider is planning to install a vision of hope in downtown Durham this morning. 

   A new mural by Durham artist Andria Linn-Dunlap will be mounted on the Main Street side of the Bull City Business Center off Five Points at 11 a.m.

   The mural, commissioned by Threshold Clubhouse, provides an occasion for the 23-year-old organization to conduct a fundraising reception and silent auction from 6 to 8 tonight at Parker and Otis restaurant, 112 S. Duke St., as well as a community celebration Sunday from 1 - 5 p.m. by the mural on Main Street near Chapel Hill Street.

   "We hope that the events of this weekend will have a ripple effect so that folks will want to come out and see what's happening at the clubhouse," said Marya McNeish, Threshold's development director.

   If they do, they'll be impressed, she believes.

   Threshold works on what it calls a "clubhouse rehabilitation model."

   Any member -- all must live in Durham County, be an Adult, have a diagnosis of a serious mental illness and have at least 30 days of sobriety under his or her belt -- can vist Threshold's 609 Gary St. facility seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends.

   The Threshold Clubhouse has no medical staff, but provides members the opportunity to participate in a variety of work, education programming and recreation -- or, if they prefer, just sit quietly.  Sometimes members sit on the sidelines for years before becoming active.

   Fifteen full-time workers and a part-time driver run Threshold on an annual budget of slightly more than $1 million.  About 130 different members visit Threshold Clubhouse each year, with an average daily attendance of about half that number.

   The results can be quite effective. "We're making a real difference in people's lives," McNeish claimed.  "People come and visit Threshold for the first time and often their reaction is you must not have the folks that are worst off because people are so functioning here.  And the truth is that our folks do have serious mental issues that they struggle with, and it is the combination of the services that we provide and the community that we provide here at Threshold that makes them so successful."

   Linda Burkhart is president of the Durham chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, members of which helped launch Threshold in 1985.  "They're like a gold standard for clubhouses," Burkhart said of the Durham agency.

   That's the kind of reputation Threshold is hoping its mural and this weekend's events will expand.