Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Morning Star on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 303
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We talk with Morningstar executive director and co-founder Donja McDonald about building a peer-run mental health community where safety and dignity come first. We dig into why a sober environment matters, how funding works for a consumer-run organization in Kansas, and what real acceptance looks like when stigma starts to loosen.
• relocating to a bigger space without increasing rent
• defining Morningstar as peer support led by people with lived experience of severe mental illness
• reducing power imbalance so members can focus on strengths
• prioritizing safety as the first requirement for healing trauma
• maintaining a clean and sober space to protect people in recovery
• supporting dual recovery through a 12-step group
• funding through Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services and writing grants that tell an emotional story with data
• noticing improved community acceptance while naming ongoing stigma for schizophrenia spectrum conditions
• describing the Recovery Conference as a shame-free, energizing space for people with mental illness
morningstar.mentalhealth.org is the website.
Sponsor And Segment Setup
SPEAKER_01Philanthropy today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We are back with the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN, and we're going to be talking about Morningstar, which is an organization that has its roots in Manhattan. It's uh it has organically grown out of the vision of a couple of uh people who have had some mental health struggles. We have, who is now the executive director. She was a co-founder along with Richard Stitt of Morningstar. Her name is Donja McDonald. Welcome back to the show.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Happy to be here.
The Surprise Relocation Across The Lot
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What's new in your world?
SPEAKER_00Well, um, we moved Caddy Corner across the parking lot from where we are before. It's uh parking lot. Yeah. We're by Goodwill. We're closer to Goodwill than we were. It's really nice, new location. It cost us nothing. Our building, our former building is going to be tear down. Um, so and put up a Planet Fitness.
SPEAKER_01Seriously.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So Planet Fitness remodeled a space for us, and it's bigger, but they're charging us the same rent. They've actually been really wonderful to work with. So it's a little bit of an adjustment for our members and even our staff. Change is hard for people with mental illness, but it's really a lovely space. And we're we're I uh negotiated hard with this big corporation, so I'm pretty proud of myself that you know it's not costing us anything, really.
What Peer Run Support Really Means
SPEAKER_01Good for you. We might just kind of touch base with newcomers to the show or to the community that uh are not familiar with Morningstar. So I think that's a few years ago.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think um it's just been hard to explain Morningstar. And I'm really glad you asked because I think there's been some misunderstanding in the community about what we are. Um, we're very unique, we're very different than anything else that's uh in Manhattan. Um we are part of a long tradition of peer support. So everyone who works at our organization, including me, has a mental illness and generally a very severe mental illness of you know, having experienced delusions or hallucinations or voices. Um we accept anybody on the mental health spectrum to be a member or work, you know, if if there's a position. So the fact that everyone who works with us is uh also a member and a client of mental health resources really makes us different. We're we get away from the model of sort of like a missionary helper coming in to save like the poor, um, horrible souls. Like we're all equally worthy, even though I'm the executive director, so I do have some power. We do everything we can to um get rid of that power imbalance. So everybody feels like a worthy human being and can focus on their strength. We're also a very safe environment, which I think people uh might not expect considering who we are. But we've never, I've been with Morningstar for 13 years. Is that right? No, 12 years. Um, and there's never been an incident of violence since I've been there. I mean, um, really, I mean, I if I search my memories really hard, once there was a card game that got a little heated.
SPEAKER_01But there's really that happens in yeah, that happens with people that aren't chaps, right?
Safety First And A Sober Space
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like so there's that we're just really safe. We need to keep our environment safe so people can grow and change. It's impossible to heal trauma without first having safety. So keeping our environment safe is one of the main things that I focus on. Um, and along with that is we're sober. And we are not trying to condemn people who are still using, but we have a lot of people on our staff and our members who are ex-users, who are in recovery. So you can't mix a population of people who are in recovery with people who are still using, or you will just have a bunch of people who are still using. It's just unfortunate. But um we have to protect our people who have worked so hard to get off substances and be clean. So that's, and I mean, what that looks like practically, if somebody comes, and this doesn't happen often, but if somebody comes and they're have been using a substance, we'll just send them home for the day. They can come back the next day if they're clean for that day. Um, we support, we have a 12-step um group, which is for people, it's called Dual Recovery Anonymous Anonymous. It's for people um who are substance abuse users in the past and have a mental health condition. So it's it's really great for our population. So the sober part is just really key to who we are. Um, and we don't do that to, you know, be mean to people who are using. It's just we have to protect our population that is clean. And it it doesn't happen often. I mean, it's known that we're a clean and sober place, so people don't come in who have been using very often at all. And we give as much support as possible for people who are getting clean. So I don't know if that's all clear, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I you did a great job of explaining a lot of it. And I think that uh, you know, uh what you have done, the groundwork that you have laid with putting those rules and safeguards in place has to be something that is uh welcoming to people to walk in the door, knowing that, hey, this is a safe place because of the leadership and the direction of um um people like yourself and Richard Sted and others that have um put together, you know, some of these precautions to make sure that it is a safe place for it.
Kansas Support And Expansion To Junction City
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because you cannot heal trauma without safety. And people, and you know, I've been there so long, I've seen people really grow and change and blossom, and that feeling of safety um is is the first step of that. And so we work really hard to make sure, you know, and and our members and our staff care about that too. So it's but I do have to say, I think um that the CRO's consumer-run organizations, consumer is a euphemism for person with mental illness, has a long tradition in Kansas. We're funded through KDATs, and we have a great relationship with KDATs through every administration, very different administration. Kansas Department of Aging and Disability really values us, and there are, I think, 11 or 12 other organizations like us around Kansas. Um, so we have a deep history, and um I'm we're I'm very grateful to the state, especially because sometimes I complain to the state a lot in the past about what's going on with the mental health system in general, and that's never been held against me in our funding or anything. So it's it's a good relationship. And also, I've been working for a long time to nurture a new organization like us in Junction City, and they have just gotten funding this year, and they are starting up so that we're growing.
SPEAKER_01Let's talk a little bit about that that growth factor and you know the the financial aspect of it because um your funding mechanism is quite a bit different than other nonprofits in the community.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we are funded through the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability, and uh uh there's a call for a proposals, and we write a big grant, and they uh it's always worked out for us. We've never really had since I've been there. I've I've like I've gotten more money for our organization since I've been there. So um, and I kind of enjoy writing grants. It's like telling a story, like making your words turn into money. It's just it's very, it's very satisfying. I enjoy telling stories. So the best grant writing is you tell a story that hits somebody not just logically but emotionally. You have to have the numbers and the data, but to tell a story that elicits emotion is sort of the the key.
Stigma Shifts And Speaking Without Shame
SPEAKER_01One of the things, you know, and and when we talk about uh individuals with mental illness, we're always concerned about the stigma of mental illness. And I feel like in the last, I don't know what, 10, 15 years, there's been some tremendous in-roads in people having a greater understanding of mental illness and and how to try to live with that and and to also you know live with the people that have it. And and I do you sense that there is more acceptance in the community, not just our community, but most communities that people do have a better understanding of what millness is, mental illness is, and some of the various challenges that these individuals face?
SPEAKER_00I really do think it's gotten better. I mean, we're not there yet, especially people on the schizophrenia spectrum, which I am on. And um, but I do think it's gotten better. And I think in this community particularly, you know, we I think there's an understanding that there needs to be a continuum of care, that everyone with mental illness is different. We're not all the same, so we need different resources, and um, we're at a certain place in the continuum of care, and we're not perfect for everyone. That's why there's be able. And but um, different people need different services on their journey to recovery, and uh yeah, we just don't want people to fall through the cracks, and those cracks are you know different for everybody, yeah, they are, and um I don't know. I personally feel very embraced and loved by this community and accepted. I've been it used to be terrifying for me to talk about my serious mental illness, and I felt a lot of shame and I was really like, oh my god, what are they thinking of me? Are they accepting me? And I would talk about it, I would speak about it, but it was very emotionally hard. But it's not like that anymore for me. I don't know if I've just gotten used to it or there's just so much more acceptance, especially in this community. But uh it's not a big drama for me to talk about my mental illness anymore.
SPEAKER_01Good for you. Good for you, and hopefully it's uh, you know, more individuals, you know, that are struggling with uh some sort of complication there. That uh, you know, being able to talk about it, sharing about it is empowering, I think.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I'm starting a documentary. Are you now? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um do you keep a journal?
SPEAKER_00I do journal. I don't know if I keep it. Sometimes I throw them away, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, if you're doing a documentary, there's a lot of notes you got to take.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
The Recovery Conference And Pride
SPEAKER_01Because there's uh a lot of points of impact in your life that you want to make sure that you share. Let's let's talk briefly about uh the recovery conference, what that is, and uh how that uh helped you and uh everybody there at Morningstar.
SPEAKER_00So the Recovery Conference is just a magical event. It's a conference this year in Wichita, and it's usually in Wichita, but not all the time. And it is um put on by the CAC, which is an organization um called Consumer Advisory Council. Again, consumer is a euphemism for person with mental illness. So they are also people with mental illness, and they are people who have struggled with severe mental illness, and they're doing great, you know, and um they put on this conference, and everyone who attends is a person with mental illness, and it's like 200 people. And I think that maybe it would be surprising for people that we can do that, that people with severe mental illness can, you know, all be together and it'd be okay, and it'd be a healing, wonderful thing. And there's very interesting workshops that are relevant, and we have a dance party on on the it's it's a two-day conference, so the on the first night, and it's just a magical, wonderful thing that um I don't think many people would expect exists.
SPEAKER_01And and what would your takeaways be?
SPEAKER_00From the conference?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, just it's it's it's like uh maybe almost like a middle all this pride experience. It's just like look at us, like we're people maybe the most voiceless, the most vulnerable. And um, we can do this, and we are not worthless, and we have strengths that we can lean on that will lead us to a better life, a better recovery. And it's a place full um devoid of shame. And um it's it's just invigorating. If I'm ever sort of tired of what I do, if I go to the conference, it's like uh I get a high from it, and I'm excited.
SPEAKER_01Well, if you'd like to find out more about the work that uh Morningstar is doing here in the community, morningstar.mentalhealth.org is the website. Donja McDonald is the executive director. Good luck with the move. That's exciting for you guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You have a great day, and uh we'll talk to you again soon. All right. When we come back for the break, we're gonna be joined by Vicky James. Talk about Food and Farm Council of Riley County and the city of Manhattan, the longest name in the history of nonprofits ever. It's uh we got a lot of great things to talk about, what they're doing. Here on the GMCF community hours.