j
ennybranks@hotmail.com
(608)-446-0104
Founder, Coordinator, Facilitator- Madison Voices Groups and HVN-USA
In 1998 Jenny Branks assisted in coordinating a Hearing Voices Network training in Madison Wisconsin. Listening to Mike Smith and Ron Coleman speak, she found for the first time, real help in understanding and encouraging people who experience negative voices, by using a philosophy that is compassionate, humanistic and broadminded.
After spending time in England to give a presentation and learning more about the Hearing Voices Network, Branks returned home and advocated for the creation of a Hearing Voices Group whose facilitator was paid by SOAR.
Since leaving SOAR in 2001, Branks has been working for herself coordinating progressive groups, innovative projects and assisting others in coordinating their own recoveries/lives.
In 2002, she was invited back to facilitate Madison Voices Group as a contractor. She has been facilitating and coordinating this group since. In October 2006 Madison Voices group became independent from SOAR and is now a fully self-run group. Branks is still the coordinator and a facilitator.
Madison Voices Group is the first Hearing Voices Group in the United States. It manages inquiries from all over the United States, directed to us by Julie Downs of HVN and Ron Coleman. The group has recently received a grant to create/coordinate the national HVN-USA Newsletter and has just started a second group in the Madison area. We are also founding the National Network: Hearing Voices Network-USA.
Branks was previously Assistant Director of SOAR Case Management, working there from 1998 – 2001. In this capacity she helped start a new, more progressive model of community mental health care and assisted other countries in replicating this new model. Branks represented SOAR and Dane Counties Adult Mental health system in England, Italy and Japan. She had the privilege of working side by side with SOAR’s founder, Jen Koberstein, for three of the five years it took Koberstein to build this business into a new, international model of humanitarian, egalitarian case work.
Branks received her B.A. in Women’s Studies at Goddard College in 1997. She is a member if the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership, Civicus Global Assembly and Board Member, Committee Chair-Obihiro Madison Sister City Inc.’s -Mental Health Standing Committee.
Branks resides in Madison Wisconsin