Lodge Magic

In Lodge Magic, John Trepp offers a fresh perspective about the lives of people suffering from mental illness. This mosaic of stories depicts real life for the people who live in Tasks' lodges - where they thrive in an atmosphere of shared responsibility, pain, and joy. These people are not strangers; they are our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers - and friends, neighbors, and co-workers. They are people who started with bright futures, were derailed by schizophrenia or other severe mental illness, and found a life transforming experience through an intentional community. Lodge Magic is a story of hope: for people with mental illness, their families and friends, and their communities.

John Trepp has long been an outspoken advocate for the rights of people with serious mental illness to choose and control their treatment and support systems. Undeterrred by the scorn of mental health professionals who value client choice only as long as the choices made conform to the latest mental health fad, Trepp has crusaded for the right of mental health consumers to earn a living, free from dependence on the welfare system, and to congregate in small consumer-led support groups, free from the controlling influence of the mental health system.

The focus of Trepp's life's work had been the lodge model, brilliantly designed by Dr. George W. Fairweather in 1961. Once widely spread, lodge progrms have fallen prey to managed care, mental health "professionalism," and myopic government policy. Thanks in part to Trepp's often unorthodox methods, the Minnesota lodges have survived and thrived, and emerged as the nation's flagship lodge program.

Trepp serves as Executive Director of Taks Unlimited, a program which sponsors 16 unsubsidized lodges in the Twin Cities area, serving 80 people. Three businesses, operated by Tasks to provide a broad range of employment opportunities for lodge participants, generate over $3 million annually (two-thirds of Tasks' total revenues) and pay total taxes equivalent to the employment subsidies it receives from various public agencies.

With a Master's degree in Public Administration from Hamiline University. Trepp has served as President of the (national) Coaliton for Community Living, Chair of the Housing Task Force of the Veteran's Health Administration, Presdident of the Minnesota Association of Community Rehabilitation Orgazizations, and Chair of the Minnesota Extended Employment Advisory Committee. But it is Trepp's 22 year leadership of the Minneapolis-based Lodge Program which establishes his credibility as a social entrepreneur.