The Heather Riemer Education Center
Help us make it possible.
Our purpose
There exists in the public sphere significant misunderstanding, social rejection, and stigma about individuals who hear voices or have other extraordinary sensory experiences. The mental distress they may feel and its impact on their lives, as well as on that of their family members, has prompted our organization, the Bay Area Hearing Voices Network, to propose to incorporate within our services an online educational forum accessible worldwide for the purpose of helping voice hearers and their family members cope, address, and hopefully overcome the fear and distress arising from their lived experiences.
Our hearing voices education center will be named in the memory of Heather Riemer, who was a voice hearer, a compassionate peer group facilitator, and served as vice president on our board. Heather’s life was cut short by the hand of her mentally unstable daughter and thus they both became victims of the type of a crime the media exploits by spreading fear about the “mentally ill” and stigmatizing them in a way that Heather would have never wanted to go unaddressed.
Our mission
The Heather Riemer Education Center will be a pioneering platform dedicated to providing specialized resources and support for voice hearers, as well as for their family members. It will offer a safe and inclusive environment for learning, understanding, and empowerment. The Center will adhere to the principles of the Hearing Voices Movement that originated in the 1980s in the Netherlands, spread to Great Britain, and now exists as a global grassroots network that includes Hearing Voices Network (HVN) USA. HVN challenges the traditional psychiatric viewpoint that hearing voices is a symptom of mental illness that can only be treated medically and therapeutically by trained clinicians and doctors. We believe that hearing voices can be understood in a broader social, cultural, and psychological context. We adhere to HVN values–those of peer support, loving kindness, curiosity, understanding, and empowerment.
Key features
Dedicated website
with a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, visually appealing and accessible across different devices.
Security and privacy
Measures will be put in place to protect user data, secure personal transactions, and maintain confidentiality. The education center web site will be accessible through the BAHVN web site and will require a pass code.
Live interactive webinars and virtual classrooms
to allow participation in active learning.
Multimedia content
The Center will present information in a variety of formats, including written material, podcasts, webcasts, and videos.
Collaborative learning
Allow participants and instructors to engage in group projects, discussion boards, real-time chats, and video conferencing with clear purpose and goals to measure and achieve.
High school and youth group assemblies
Will provide support and community for teens and transitional-age youth.
A research library
will allow participants to acquire personalized learning through access to research papers and articles that the center will download and catalog. The library will include access to live websites worldwide that feature other HVN resources. We also intend to build an archive of personal stories submitted by voice hearers, family members, or guests.
Public outreach
Will provide speakers who can describe HVN values and publicize the services of the Bay Area Hearing Voices Network to local mental health clinicians, students, and organizations.
Peer group facilitation training
Three-day workshops will be held at a Bay Area location with the objective of creating a pool of trained facilitators for current and future voice hearer and family support groups.
Community events
Open to the public and held at local auditoriums, events in the community may include expert panels, films, or invited guests from outside the Bay Area who are aligned with HVN values.
Hearing voices workshops
designed for family members that can be accessed in person and online will be held.