The Open Ear Project's Story

The Open Ear Project was created from a heart of empathy and passion for active listening. A high school student had the opportunity to walk into the world of active listening through a program called TEENLINE, which is a hotline based in Cedars Sinai. Through her experience as a listener there, she was able to not only learn how to actively listen, but she was also able to first-handedly experience how critical empathy is when it comes to helping others in emotional crises.

There is nothing more simple than lending an open ear. Yet, it's not done enough.

When this student entered college at UCLA, she was overwhelmed by the vast number of mental health/wellness organizations. However, she could not find one that provided tools that would well-equip peers to provide tangible help to others. Furthermore, she was able to recognize that there are specific cultures that especially hold a negative view and stigma towards mental health. With these realizations, she developed the heart to start up a project that would align with her goals as a fellow peer and student at UCLA.

She decided to join as a Crisis Counselor at Crisis Text Line, where she was able to refresh her active listening skills. Once those skillsets were acquired, she reached out to her peers in order to create the founding team of the Open Ear Project.

And now. Here we are. We're here to listen to you. To empathize with what you're feeling. To not simply sympathize, but also try to understand what you're going through. We're still small in number, but our ultimate goal is to increase the number of listeners, so that, in the end, anyone at UCLA can be comfortable and trust that the person walking beside them has the heart to open up their ear to them.