Our healing mission is to improve the lives of individuals struggling with mental illness or other mental health challenges by helping them work towards achieving their highest levels of functioning and fulfillment. Philosophy, Vision, & Program
VISION
We envision a future where the stigma against individuals with mental health conditions, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and personality disorders, including borderline personality disorder and OCD, has disappeared. CooperRiis is a place of integration and Recovery of wholeness where isolation is replaced by relationships and where the mind, body, and spirit are nurtured. Each staff member is a beacon of hope and facilitates Recovery of Recovery for the residents and community members of CooperRiis. We believe that dis-ease can be replaced by at-ease, and hope can emerge. HISTORY
Don Cooper and Lisbeth Riis Cooper are the philanthropic leaders who co-founded and opened the CooperRiis Healing Community on June 15, 2003, and continued as Board Chairman and Vice-Chair since opening. The Coopers formed a Board of Directors and established CooperRiis, Inc. as a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit corporation, which functions privately and operates under North Carolina licensure. Don, Lisbeth, and the Board carefully guided the construction of safe and beautiful facilities, which provide CooperRiis with a warm, home-like environment for residents and staff alike. CooperRiis is a voluntary program, and services are available to a broad spectrum of individuals; about half of our residents’ families receive scholarships. CORE VALUES
CooperRiis is a therapeutic community guided by the principles of Recovery. It stands on the shoulders of a long tradition started by Gould Farm in Massachusetts and Spring Lake Ranch in Vermont and a shared belief that personal growth emerges from compassionate and humanistic care in an environment that incorporates collaborative work and recreational activities. Within our therapeutic community, each staff member pledges to behave in a manner that fosters and values:
• A culture of emotional and physical safety;
• A personal life of meaning, belonging, hope, and purpose;
• An atmosphere of kindness, respect, and open and authentic communication;
• Each person’s ideas, input, service, and contribution to the work and social life of the community;
• Interactions that create a feeling of being at home and at ease in the special physical environment of CooperRiis; and
• Quality relationships based on genuine empathy and mutuality.
