email: [email protected]      

What We Do

 “The most basic of all human needs is the need to          understand and be understood.
The best way to understand people
is to listen to them.”
- Ralph G. Nichols
​
​We offer deep listening face-to-face at various Barrie sites around the city. See below for our locations and times. 
Visitors to the Listening Post can come with life experiences to share or for a simple quiet time in a safe accepting space.
We offer online listening training for individuals and groups who wish to deepen their ability to offer deep listening. 

Who We Are

Listening Post volunteers are people from a variety of backgrounds in our community. We may be secular or people of faith, but at our core we are people who understand the value of accepting people just as they are. We practice  listening to people without any other agenda; that means no judging, no trying to fix or correct someone’s life. We are listeners who do not give advice or suggestions.
We seek to be compassionately present to others - whatever they want to share.
As volunteers, we receive on-going training in the art of deep listening. Even though listening is natural, it benefits from mindful examination of our listening experiences and reactions, as well as time to reflect and practice. Our monthly volunteer meetings offer us a chance to practice and notice those moments when we are challenged to grow and when our hearts are moved by deep connection.

Why we Listen

“Perhaps the most important thing we can give each other is our attention.”
​-Rachel Naomi Remen

We listen because it is important.
Each of us have experienced the gift of others listening deeply to us when we needed to be heard.  We want to pass that gift on.
We are people who find joy and meaning in the profound human connection that happens when we are fully present, valuing and listening to another person.
 
Something shifts inside us when we are heard. We know our value. We know our experience matters. When we can tell our story without being intruded upon by the opinions or advice of someone else we receive a gift. It is the gift of being respected just as we are. We are enough. Deep listening respects our privacy, individuality and our own wisdom.
The Listening Post Barrie began its pilot listening site at the Busby Centre in the spring of 2019 and is a volunteer staffed, 100% donation funded initiative.
We are mentored by the experienced listeners of the Listening Post Anchorage, Alaska. Many thanks also to the Listening Post Vancouver for their support and hospitality as we researched Listening Post possibilities for Barrie.
We are an initiative of Burton Avenue United Church and financially supported by our community.

​Listening Post locations
​Listening is temporarily paused as we restructure our management team.

 
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