Making Music Helping to Change Lives

Making music in a place that used to make auto supplies. It's an unlikely scenario that's changing lives.

It's been a long journey for Gerald Butler. He started drinking when he was just eleven to deal with what would later be diagnosed as schizophrenia. The voices in his head took a toll -- homelessness, addiction, divorce and suicidal thoughts. However, today Gerald is a different person.

"I am a person. I am not that disease," said Butler.

Butler plays in the "Recovery" band -- musicians and artists all in recovery who know making music is like magic.

"It is therapy to me," said singer Denise Holiday. "It allows me to be free."

"We don't deal with what's wrong with you. That's for the doctors to do. We deal with what is right with you," Butler said.

It all happens at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit, a complex that dates back to the early 1900s. However, thanks to Detroit Adult Well-Being Services, it's now home to C.H.A.R.G.E., the Center of Healing, Arts, Recovery, Growth and Empowerment.

"We're kind of fired up about bringing this out and trying something new like this," said Ed Mischel with Adult Well-Being Services.

C.H.A.R.G.E. gives artists of all types a place and the tools to come together and create as they recover from mental illness. They are welcomed and encouraged to come, realizing they have purpose while teaching others lessons learned the hard way.

"I get to turn that poison into medicine to help others heal, and that's the purpose of the recovery band," said Butler.

You can help support programs like this by participating in the National Alliance on Mental Illness Walk happening this weekend on Belle Isle. For more information, visit www.namimi.org .