CooperRiis

Philosophy, Mission, & Program

Vision

We envision a future where the stigma against individuals with mental health conditions, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, personality disorders including borderline personality disorder, OCD has disappeared, where every individual will have the opportunity to recover from their mental illness, and where these individuals will be accepted into their communities as responsible and contributing citizens.

We believe that recovery from serious mental health and substance abuse conditions is attainable. William Anthony, a leader in the Recovery Movement, writes: “Recovery is a deeply personal, unique process of changing one’s attitudes, values, feelings, goals, skills, and/or roles. It is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life even with limitations caused by illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness.” (Anthony, National Mental Health Plan, 2003-2008).

CooperRiis is a place of integration and recovery of wholeness, a place where isolation is replaced by relationship, and where the mind, body and spirit are nurtured within nature. We believe that dis-ease can be replaced by at-ease, and hope can emerge. Each staff member is a beacon of hope and a facilitator of recovery for the residents and community members of CooperRiis.

Mission

Our mission is to help individuals whose lives are impeded by mental health challenges or emotional distress to develop their capacities for creativity, wholeness, relationship, and optimal health so that they may achieve their highest levels of fulfillment and functioning and respond productively to their future challenges and opportunities for growth.

Origins & History

Don and Lisbeth Riis Cooper are the philanthropic leaders who co-founded and opened the CooperRiis Healing Community on June 15, 2003 and who have continued as Board Chairman and Vice Chair since opening. Thanks to their dreams and generosity, CooperRiis has become a special place that has served people from all over the United States and the world. 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. CooperRiis has benefited from long-serving senior management, including its founding Executive Director Virgil Stucker.

Don, Lisbeth, and the Board of Directors have raised and/or given millions of dollars to build and endow CooperRiis and have carefully guided the construction of safe and beautiful facilities, which give CooperRiis a warm home-like environment for residents and staff alike. From day one, staff members have been invited to be partners in striving to be the best recovery community there can be for some of society’s most vulnerable members.

CooperRiis is a voluntary program. Services are provided to residents who agree to participate. The fees that fund our operations are paid by families, our residents, medical insurance, and the resources provided by foundations and donors. Don and Lisbeth Cooper’s passion for recovery is matched by their desire to make sure that CooperRiis’ services are available to a broad spectrum of individuals; about half of our residents’ families receive scholarships.

Foundation of Program and Core Values

CooperRiis is a therapeutic community guided by the principles of enhanced recovery. CooperRiis stands on the shoulders of a long tradition of therapeutic communities in the United States. Founded in 1913 and 1933 respectively, Gould Farm in Massachusetts and Spring Lake Ranch in Vermont – both still in operation – share the core belief that personal growth emerges from compassionate and humanistic care in an environment that incorporates communal work, recreational activities, and rich social interactions.

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.

All community members walk with, work with, dine with, socialize with and talk with one another in a manner that empowers each to develop and fulfill their dreams and plans for a successful life.

These values apply to residents, staff, and all other CooperRiis community members.