news & events

February 22, 2024

Watch all 34 Video Presentations!

4th Annual Online Peer Workforce Conference: Bridging Research and Practice

Wednesday, January 31, 2024 from 9 AM to 6:30 PM.

All recorded presentations can be found on YouTube here.

Searchable Topics, Presenters, Videos and Materials can accessed below.

Number Track Presentation Presenters & affiliations Description Video Materials

𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗨𝗠𝗔-𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗘𝗗 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘

1 Trauma-informed Care Building and Supporting a Trauma-Informed Behavioral Health Organization Michele Simone, Barry D. Johnson, Viviene Devaney-Frice, Transitions-Mental Health Association A baseline review of Trauma-Informed Care: TIC definition, ACEs, Window of Tolerance, and HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences); an overview of TMHA's process in building a Trauma-Informed agency: agency champions, SAMHSA's TIP 57, Steering Committee development, leadership buy-in, annual implementation plan review, additional organizational models Click to watch Download

1 Trauma-informed Care Peer Services in a Post-pandemic World -- Tackling Challenges in 2024 Shannon McCleerey-Hooper, Deputy Director of Peer Support Services, Riverside University Health System From hiring and retention to serving distressed communities, the pandemic has impacted the peer workforce. Click to watch Download

1 Trauma-informed Care Trauma-Informed Care and Cultural Responsiveness Through Justice Doing Vanessa Williams, CEO/Founder, Elevate Recovery; Anisa Mustafa, Director of Online Training, One New Heartbeat This workshop explores the essential concepts of trauma-informed care and cultural responsiveness within a justice-oriented framework. During this workshop, participants will delve into the foundational principles of trauma-informed care and cultural responsiveness. Participants will explore how cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences intersect with trauma, and how to foster a culturally sensitive environment that promotes healing and resilience. The workshop will also emphasize the concept of "justice doing" as a framework for creating positive social change. Click to watch Download

𝗔𝗗𝗩𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗖𝗬

2 Advocacy Peer Respite Leadership Summit: Where Do We Go From Here? Bel Ng, Peer Coordinator, SHARE! Recovery Retreat More than 30 people gathered for the Peer Respite Leadership Conference in November in Charlotte, North Carolina to discuss respite standards and founding a national peer respite association. What was learned and what are the next steps? Click to watch

2 Advocacy What is the State of Peer Support in California? Updates and discussion Jason Robison, Chief Program Officer, SHARE! From legislative changes to emerging research, the peer workforce faces challenges and opportunities. Share your thoughts on today's conference and next steps. Click to watch Download

2 Advocacy Strengthening the Peer Support Workforce at the City and County of Denver (CCD): An Assessment and Action Planning Project Tara MIlligan, University of Denver School of Social Work; Tom Lucas, Affirming Ground Project; Danielle Littman, University of Utah College of Social Work; Wendy Sachs, Peer Support Specialist; Elise Matatall, City and County of Denver Through collaborative analysis, five priority areas emerged that lead to actionable steps to strengthen CCD’s Peer Support Workforce: cross-agency collaboration, increasing pay and opportunities for advancement, improving hiring and recruitment practices, alignment of peer navigator roles with peer support principles, and creating a tool for supervisors and hiring managers to better onboard and support peer navigators. Click to watch Download

2 Advocacy Peer Professionals Leading Change: 365 Peer Recovery Teaches Transformation Becky Brasfield, NAMI Illinois Alliance of Peer Professionals Peer Professionals Leading Change will guide participants to perform a peer career assessment to evaluate their career wants and needs at multiple levels of change. The presentation will define wants and needs in terms of the peer workforce and participants will have an opportunity to reflect on whether or not their wants and needs are being met in their own peer careers. Breakout-sessions will focus on advocacy tools to address those concerns. The presenter will provide an example of how 365 Peer Recovery is one tool she developed to teach individual, group, and systems level transformation. Click to watch Download

2 Advocacy Expanding Peer-Led Capacity: The Struggle is Real Gwen Schrank, Co-Founder, Schrank’s Clubhouse, Tulare County Is the state tricky, the county greedy, or are we just not ready for the peer support movement? Community-based organizations face numerous challenges to get started, operate and grow, including understanding how state funds are spent and approaching counties which prefer to keep state funds for themselves. Some peer organizations aren’t ready to advocate for, receive and manage the funds properly. Discussion: What resources are available to expand peer workforce capacity? Click to watch

2 Advocacy Bridging the Gap Between Housing Resources and Mental Health Resources Erica Jackson, LA Tenants Union There's a lack of mental health awareness and a rising housing crisis! Addressing the two individually has shown to be ineffective. The failure to bridge the gap, prioritize and protect the disabled results in a repeated cycle of homelessness while suicides rates are increasing and the overall mental wellbeing of our nation’s most vulnerable are in a plummeting decline. Let's get to the bottom of this. Click to watch

Organizational Tools 𝗢𝗥𝗚𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗭𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗢𝗢𝗟𝗦

3 Organizational Tools The Future of Peer Support Supervision: Findings from Participatory Action Research Jonathan P. Edwards, NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene and Columbia University; Joanne Forbes, Rutgers University and Baltic Wellness Solutions; Rita Cronise, Rutgers University; Gita Enders, NYC Health + Hospitals, Amy B. Spagnolo, Rutgers University; Carlos Pratt, Rutgers University This workshop will describe the breadth and depth of supervisory practice as illustrated by the Five Critical Functions of Supervision; this model expands on SAMHSA’s three-function model (administrative, educative, and supportive) by exploring advocative and evaluative functions inherent in the supervisor’s role. Implications for supervisory training and development will be discussed with respect to focus group findings on the importance, frequency, and criticality of supervision competencies. Click to watch

3 Organizational Tools Tap Into the Power of Census Bureau Data Andrew Soto, US Census Bureau This workshop will help participants learn how to locate and use data tools to access Census Bureau data and produce demographic profiles to inform research and policy. Learn to drill down to the state or county level and search for important trends such as homelessness. Click to watch

3 Organizational Tools Leveraging Technology for Seamless Peer Services Tanya Kraege, Safe Communities MDC; Kristina Vaccaro, Safe Communities MDC This workshop focuses on how organizations who do peer work can get organized and incorporate data-based approaches to tracking their peer work and improving outcomes. New research and approaches will be discussed. Tanya will also share how Safe Communities successfully grew their peer program budgets from 200k to more than 1.5M, helping to reach more people in the Madison, Wisconsin and surrounding areas. This workshop is great for anyone who does peer work, supervises peers, or interfaces with peer organizations. Click to watch Download

3 Organizational Tools You Do What, How Well? The Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS) and Appreciative Performance Support for Peer Service Providers and Supervisors George Braucht, Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist (CARES) Academy and Forensic Peer Mentor Ready4Rentry This workshop introduces appreciative performance support that privileges the service recipients’ voice using the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS). Ten randomized clinical trials (so far), a cohort study and three benchmarking investigations unequivocally show that PCOMS improves outcomes and increases efficiencies including in public behavioral health systems. Click to watch Download

3 Organizational Tools What's in a Name? Sine Rofofsky, Alliance for Rights and Recovery, Provisionally Certified Peer Specialist In this session we will explore the impact of our title, and the titles of services and other professionals we might refer peers to. Sometimes a specific title might have a stigma associated with it, or a fear, or it might even bring up past not-so-good experiences. Through brainstorming and considering alternate terms that might be useful, we will as a group create a list of alternatives that can be used, and also explore the implications of using alternate names or titles. Click to watch Download

Peer Training 𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚

4 Peer Training Advanced Peer Support Specialist Training Competencies: A Preliminary Study Julie Chronister, Sandra Fitzgerald, Jace Perry, Mechila-Rae Hodge, San Francisco State University A qualitative study describing advanced peer support (PS) training competencies will be presented. PS is one of the fasting growing professions in the behavioral health workforce. As the profession develops, there is a call for identifying salient training competencies – particularly competencies that enhance/complement certification training. Findings suggest that training should be grounded in core relational and PS/Recovery competencies. Advanced training themes described include trauma-informed care, intersectionality, crisis support, substance use, advocacy, employment support, supervision, and specific communities/settings. Click to watch

4 Peer Training Using EQUIP to Strengthen Counseling Skills of Adolescent Peer Counselors Living with HIV in Zimbabwe Carol Wogrin, Zvandiri Zvandiri is a peer support model in Zimbabwe, where Community Adolescent Treatment Supporters (CATS) provide support to young people living with HIV, birth – 24 years, and caregivers. CATS routinely confront a myriad of significant problems among the young people they support. Zvandiri’s empirical work has documented CATS’ need for ongoing training and supervision to ensure quality care. To strengthen training and supervision for CATS, we integrated WHO-UNICEF’s program, Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial Support Program (EQUIP) into a CATS training. We found the efforts to be highly effective in building counselling skills and enthusiastically received by the CATS. Click to watch Download

4 Peer Training California Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialist Certification Giselle Galloway, CalMHSA The California Mental Health Services Authority, CalMHSA, will provide information on the requirements for certification. The session will provide you with the latest updates on program developments and certification requirements to ensure that you receive the most comprehensive and up-to-date information. Click to watch Download

4 Peer Training Working with Peers and Community Health Workers to Develop Motivational Interviewing E-Learning Modules Adrienne Lapidos, University of Michigan Medical School The project discussed in this presentation involved developing, launching, and evaluating a series of e-learning modules designed to teach motivational interviewing and action planning strategies to peers and Community Health Workers (CHWs). The project team consisted of UM faculty and a Community Advisory Board (CAB) of peers and CHWs as well as representatives from local community organizations and MDHHS. During today’s presentation, participants will (1) learn about the history of the project, (2) learn how to access the e-learning modules, (3) reflect on university-community partnerships. Click to watch

4 Peer Training Peer & Clinicians Collaborative Training Orlando Vera, Peer Voices of Orange County This multidisciplinary, multimodal approach will help peers and clinicians address a systematically overlooked area of their daily work: interactions with diametrically trained service providers (peers vs. clinicians). This training is designed to help both groups of service providers bridge the gap between their contradictory methods of helping consumers of mental and behavioral health. Benefits include overcoming and resolving clashes between peers and clinicians, learning how to more effectively collaborate and bond together, reducing client attrition & AMAs/ACAs, accelerating clients’ growth, and ensuring successful treatment. Click to watch

Peer Models 𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗥 𝗠𝗢𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗦

5 Peer Models Empowering Futures: Integrating Advocacy Counseling within Employment Specialists, Digital Equity Initiatives, and Medi-Cal Peer Support Training and Placement Dee Dee Thatcher, Mental Health Association of San Francisco Explore the pivotal role of employment specialists as advocacy counselors. Our discussion will define Advocacy Counseling and how our Employent Specialists use it to identify barriers, and to empower individuals with lived experience to secure and maintain gainful employment. We will also address the issue of digital equity and present a case study of our successful laptop distribution program; designed to ensure peers have access to the digital tools necessary for employment and education. Our presentation will conclude by exploring both challenges and triumphs related to training and placing peers. Click to watch

5 Peer Models Introduction to Recovery Cafes: Peer Focused Healing Communities Ken Goldstein, Recovery Café Network Since 2004, Recovery Cafés have provided safe, healing communities for those recovering from SUDs, homelessness, mental health issues, and other life traumas. This session explains the Recovery Café model, examines the data and evidence-based practices behind how it works, and explores how Recovery Cafés are built on peer leadership and opportunities for personal growth. Participants will have their questions about the program answered, and have the opportunity to learn how to bring a peer-led Recovery Café to their communities. Click to watch

5 Peer Models SHARE! Collaborative Housing: Rapid Housing, Community, and Peer Support Tom Haberkorn, Peer Bridger, SHARE! Collaborative Housing SHARE! Collaborative Housing is a public-private partnership providing affordable, permanent supportive housing to disabled people in single-family houses throughout Los Angeles County. People with similar issues, such as vets, mental health consumers, people with diabetes, trauma issues, etc. live like college roommates, each paying approximately $500 to $900 monthly in a fully-furnished house. They build community and benefit from self-help support groups. Click to watch Download

5 Peer Models A Chance to Grow : An Overview of Transitions – Mental Health Association and Growing Grounds Enterprises Kendra Belch, Outreach and Presentations Coordinator; Shannon McDermott, High School Program Presenter; Anna Wiens, Growing Grounds Enterprises Program Manager; Sterling Snow, Growing Grounds Farm Program Supervisor; Larry Sander, WIG Intern and Growing Grounds Farm Employee; Jaylyn Tell, WIG Intern and Growing Grounds Farm Employee from Transitions-Mental Health Association Come hear about the important work Transitions-Mental Health Association is doing along California's Central Coast as Kendra Belch, Outreach and Presentations Coordinator and Shannon McDermott, Highschool Program Presenter give an overview of the organization's programs. Then, dive deeper with us as we look specifically at TMHA’s Growing Grounds Programs with Program Manager, Anna Wiens and Program Supervisor, Sterling Snow. We will wrap up this hour-long session with a panel discussion lead by two Growing Grounds Farm Employees and WIG Interns, Larry Sanders and Jaylyn Tell. Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA) is dedicated to eliminating stigma and promoting recovery and wellness for people with mental illness through work, housing, community, and family support services on the Central Coast of California. Growing Grounds Farm in Santa Maria combines therapeutic horticulture and vocational training to provide individuals living with a mental illness employment in a supportive environment where personal growth can be realized. Click to watch

5 Peer Models What Peer Support Looks Like Throughout the Lifespan Laura Callen, Hands Across Long Island Peer support is more than just a service that can be provided to those in need. In its simplest form peer support is human connection through shared experience. Peer support naturally starts as young as childhood and lasts throughout someone's life. As a person ages the style of peer support that is needed evolves as well. This workshop aims to delve into the different types of peer support that exist during different stages of life i.e; Youth Peer, Family Peer, Certified Peers etc..., and how these peers support folks in these stages. There are some specialties we will go into as well within these peer roles such as the CRPA-Y/F. The goal of this presentation is to showcase the importance and versatility of Peers throughout the lifespan. Click to watch Download

5 Peer Models Peer Support Unveiled: The Power of Asking the Rare Questions Kathy Cash, US Army Veteran; CPSS This webinar will focus on often-overlooked aspects of peer services and navigate beyond common inquiries, addressing pivotal yet infrequently posed questions that reinforce effective peer support. By exploring vulnerability, cultural competence, qualifications, stigma reduction, technological integration, and the symbiotic relationship between research and practice, we illuminate the transformative potential of inquisitive insights. Click to watch Download

5 Peer Models Pioneering Emotional Expertise for Global Change - The Chair of Joy™ Revolution Sheryl Lynn, JOYELY, LLC The JOYRISE keynote presents a concept whose time has come, delivering a potent message that delves into the profound significance of JOYRISE as a title in today’s world. Discover how this concept unveils two distinct yet equally impactful interpretations. First, Joy is readily accessible, enabling you to summon it at will. This process harmonizes your brain and heart through simple cues, resulting in a fundamental shift in your emotional landscape. Second, JOYRISE transforms into a movement—an inspiring vision where individuals, communities, and societies collectively embrace the power of joy. Click to watch Download

Serving Specific Populations 𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖 𝗣𝗢𝗣𝗨𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦

6 Serving Specific Populations Forensic Peer Mentoring: Go ahead, Make My Day! George Braucht, Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist (CARES) Academy and Forensic Peer Mentor Ready4Rentry; Lindsey Sizemore, Certified Peer Specialist, Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network This workshop introduces crime desistance as the research and practice basis for Forensic Peer Mentoring: Ready4Reentry, a workforce development credential for Certified Peer Specialists who have lived experience in the carceral systems and with mental illness and/or substance use. Click to watch Download

6 Serving Specific Populations The Contemporary Forms of Exploitation Faced by Street-Connected Children in the Hostile Economic Environment of Zimbabwe Prince Dzingirai, University of Kwazulu Natal, Women's University in Africa; Loreen Musemburi, Women's University in Africa, Zimbabwe Open University This paper will explore the contemporary form of exploitation exhibited to children living in the streets of Zimbabwe. The paper shall use the mixed research method and auto-ethnographic research design to explore the contemporary exploitative conceptions faced by children living in the streets of Harare. The researcher shall use purposive and snowball sampling method to select the participants. Data shall be analysed in line with mixed research method. Click to watch Download

6 Serving Specific Populations How to refer LGBTQIA+ communities to Self-Help Support Groups Discussion and sharing resources with LGBTQIA+ Peers and Allies Discussion and sharing resources with LGBTQIA+ Peers and Allies Click to watch Download

6 Serving Specific Populations Facilitating Neuro-Affirmative Peer Support Groups Anne Nicholson, Certified Peer Support Specialist, Painted Brain Facilitating Neuro-Affirmative Peer Support Groups will be a structured roundtable discussion about what it takes to facilitate peer support groups for individuals who identify as neurodivergent, including autism, ADHD, etc. Click to watch Download

6 Serving Specific Populations Addressing the Recovery Support Needs of People with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Jordan Smelley, Peer Support Specialist The purpose of this presentation is to help Peer Support Specialists as well as the Recovery Community at large better understand the potential support needs of people with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities with or without co-occurring Mental Health and/or Substance Use Challenges that they interact with either socially, academically, and/or professionally by providing examples of potential support needs through use of personal lived experiences and methods that can be used to help address support needs as well as viewing a recorded interview by Kari Dunn Burron discussing The Incredible 5 Point Scale which Kari co-created with Mitzi Curtis. Click to watch Download

Self-care 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙-𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘

7 Self-care Move the Muscles and the Muscles Retrain the Brain: Exemplary Health and Wellness Practices for Rapidly Changing Environments Seti Kargbo, Peer Support Specialist, SHARE! Explore the dynamic between regular physical activity and mental health in this presentation. Drawing on extensive research surrounding the effects of abuse on the brain, I delve into the transformative impact of self-empowered recovery, advocating for the implementation of self-help support groups into communities and institutions as a primary solution. Click to watch

7 Self-care The 5 Pillars of Recovery to Mental Wellness Jared Bendifallah, Peer Support Specialist Implementing these 5 Pillars can lead to profound growth and healing over time: basic stability; having a self-care plan; trusting the process of recovery; finding your community; expanded self-awareness and intuition Click to watch Download

7 Self-care Peace Work: From Reactor to Creator - The Value of Taking 100% Responsibility for the Lives We Lead Noelle Pollet, Heart Circle Consulting Peace Work is a highly transformative, engaging and readily duplicable format, based on the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). It involves structured group-work that uses interactive activities to affirm, invite communication, collaboration, etc. Participants routinely enjoy remarkable connection and a sense of bonded trust; very productive for learning new skills and gaining insight into ourselves and others. During this workshop we dig deep into the liberation available with a shift in perception from seeing ourselves as victims: of brain chemistry, trauma, a dysfunctional “system” …anything! And claim our True identities: powerful children of Creation. Click to watch

Number	Track	Presentation	Presenters & affiliations	Description	Video	Materials
		𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗨𝗠𝗔-𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗘𝗗 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘
1	Trauma-informed Care	Building and Supporting a Trauma-Informed Behavioral Health Organization	Michele Simone, Barry D. Johnson, Viviene Devaney-Frice, Transitions-Mental Health Association	A baseline review of Trauma-Informed Care: TIC definition, ACEs, Window of Tolerance, and HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences); an overview of TMHA's process in building a Trauma-Informed agency: agency champions, SAMHSA's TIP 57, Steering Committee development, leadership buy-in, annual implementation plan review, additional organizational models	Click to watch	Download
1	Trauma-informed Care	Peer Services in a Post-pandemic World -- Tackling Challenges in 2024	Shannon McCleerey-Hooper, Deputy Director of Peer Support Services, Riverside University Health System	From hiring and retention to serving distressed communities, the pandemic has impacted the peer workforce.	Click to watch	Download
1	Trauma-informed Care	Trauma-Informed Care and Cultural Responsiveness Through Justice Doing	Vanessa Williams, CEO/Founder, Elevate Recovery; Anisa Mustafa, Director of Online Training, One New Heartbeat	This workshop explores the essential concepts of trauma-informed care and cultural responsiveness within a justice-oriented framework. During this workshop, participants will delve into the foundational principles of trauma-informed care and cultural responsiveness. Participants will explore how cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences intersect with trauma, and how to foster a culturally sensitive environment that promotes healing and resilience. The workshop will also emphasize the concept of "justice doing" as a framework for creating positive social change.	Click to watch	Download
		𝗔𝗗𝗩𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗖𝗬
2	Advocacy	Peer Respite Leadership Summit: Where Do We Go From Here?	Bel Ng, Peer Coordinator, SHARE! Recovery Retreat	More than 30 people gathered for the Peer Respite Leadership Conference in November in Charlotte, North Carolina to discuss respite standards and founding a national peer respite association. What was learned and what are the next steps?	Click to watch
2	Advocacy	What is the State of Peer Support in California? Updates and discussion	Jason Robison, Chief Program Officer, SHARE!	From legislative changes to emerging research, the peer workforce faces challenges and opportunities. Share your thoughts on today's conference and next steps.	Click to watch	Download
2	Advocacy	Strengthening the Peer Support Workforce at the City and County of Denver (CCD): An Assessment and Action Planning Project	Tara MIlligan, University of Denver School of Social Work; Tom Lucas, Affirming Ground Project; Danielle Littman, University of Utah College of Social Work; Wendy Sachs, Peer Support Specialist; Elise Matatall, City and County of Denver	Through collaborative analysis, five priority areas emerged that lead to actionable steps to strengthen CCD’s Peer Support Workforce: cross-agency collaboration, increasing pay and opportunities for advancement, improving hiring and recruitment practices, alignment of peer navigator roles with peer support principles, and creating a tool for supervisors and hiring managers to better onboard and support peer navigators.	Click to watch	Download
2	Advocacy	Peer Professionals Leading Change: 365 Peer Recovery Teaches Transformation	Becky Brasfield, NAMI Illinois Alliance of Peer Professionals	Peer Professionals Leading Change will guide participants to perform a peer career assessment to evaluate their career wants and needs at multiple levels of change. The presentation will define wants and needs in terms of the peer workforce and participants will have an opportunity to reflect on whether or not their wants and needs are being met in their own peer careers. Breakout-sessions will focus on advocacy tools to address those concerns. The presenter will provide an example of how 365 Peer Recovery is one tool she developed to teach individual, group, and systems level transformation.	Click to watch	Download
2	Advocacy	Expanding Peer-Led Capacity: The Struggle is Real	Gwen Schrank, Co-Founder, Schrank’s Clubhouse, Tulare County	Is the state tricky, the county greedy, or are we just not ready for the peer support movement? Community-based organizations face numerous challenges to get started, operate and grow, including understanding how state funds are spent and approaching counties which prefer to keep state funds for themselves. Some peer organizations aren’t ready to advocate for, receive and manage the funds properly. Discussion: What resources are available to expand peer workforce capacity?	Click to watch
2	Advocacy	Bridging the Gap Between Housing Resources and Mental Health Resources	Erica Jackson, LA Tenants Union	There's a lack of mental health awareness and a rising housing crisis! Addressing the two individually has shown to be ineffective. The failure to bridge the gap, prioritize and protect the disabled results in a repeated cycle of homelessness while suicides rates are increasing and the overall mental wellbeing of our nation’s most vulnerable are in a plummeting decline. Let's get to the bottom of this.	Click to watch
	Organizational Tools	𝗢𝗥𝗚𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗭𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗢𝗢𝗟𝗦
3	Organizational Tools	The Future of Peer Support Supervision: Findings from Participatory Action Research	Jonathan P. Edwards, NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene and Columbia University; Joanne Forbes, Rutgers University and Baltic Wellness Solutions; Rita Cronise, Rutgers University; Gita Enders, NYC Health + Hospitals, Amy B. Spagnolo, Rutgers University; Carlos Pratt, Rutgers University	This workshop will describe the breadth and depth of supervisory practice as illustrated by the Five Critical Functions of Supervision; this model expands on SAMHSA’s three-function model (administrative, educative, and supportive) by exploring advocative and evaluative functions inherent in the supervisor’s role. Implications for supervisory training and development will be discussed with respect to focus group findings on the importance, frequency, and criticality of supervision competencies.	Click to watch
3	Organizational Tools	Tap Into the Power of Census Bureau Data	Andrew Soto, US Census Bureau	This workshop will help participants learn how to locate and use data tools to access Census Bureau data and produce demographic profiles to inform research and policy. Learn to drill down to the state or county level and search for important trends such as homelessness.	Click to watch
3	Organizational Tools	Leveraging Technology for Seamless Peer Services	Tanya Kraege, Safe Communities MDC; Kristina Vaccaro, Safe Communities MDC	This workshop focuses on how organizations who do peer work can get organized and incorporate data-based approaches to tracking their peer work and improving outcomes. New research and approaches will be discussed. Tanya will also share how Safe Communities successfully grew their peer program budgets from 200k to more than 1.5M, helping to reach more people in the Madison, Wisconsin and surrounding areas. This workshop is great for anyone who does peer work, supervises peers, or interfaces with peer organizations.	Click to watch	Download
3	Organizational Tools	You Do What, How Well? The Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS) and Appreciative Performance Support for Peer Service Providers and Supervisors	George Braucht, Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist (CARES) Academy and Forensic Peer Mentor Ready4Rentry	This workshop introduces appreciative performance support that privileges the service recipients’ voice using the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS). Ten randomized clinical trials (so far), a cohort study and three benchmarking investigations unequivocally show that PCOMS improves outcomes and increases efficiencies including in public behavioral health systems.	Click to watch	Download
3	Organizational Tools	What's in a Name?	Sine Rofofsky, Alliance for Rights and Recovery, Provisionally Certified Peer Specialist	In this session we will explore the impact of our title, and the titles of services and other professionals we might refer peers to. Sometimes a specific title might have a stigma associated with it, or a fear, or it might even bring up past not-so-good experiences. Through brainstorming and considering alternate terms that might be useful, we will as a group create a list of alternatives that can be used, and also explore the implications of using alternate names or titles.	Click to watch	Download
	Peer Training	𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚
4	Peer Training	Advanced Peer Support Specialist Training Competencies: A Preliminary Study	Julie Chronister, Sandra Fitzgerald, Jace Perry, Mechila-Rae Hodge, San Francisco State University	A qualitative study describing advanced peer support (PS) training competencies will be presented. PS is one of the fasting growing professions in the behavioral health workforce. As the profession develops, there is a call for identifying salient training competencies – particularly competencies that enhance/complement certification training. Findings suggest that training should be grounded in core relational and PS/Recovery competencies. Advanced training themes described include trauma-informed care, intersectionality, crisis support, substance use, advocacy, employment support, supervision, and specific communities/settings.	Click to watch
4	Peer Training	Using EQUIP to Strengthen Counseling Skills of Adolescent Peer Counselors Living with HIV in Zimbabwe	Carol Wogrin, Zvandiri	Zvandiri is a peer support model in Zimbabwe, where Community Adolescent Treatment Supporters (CATS) provide support to young people living with HIV, birth – 24 years, and caregivers. CATS routinely confront a myriad of significant problems among the young people they support. Zvandiri’s empirical work has documented CATS’ need for ongoing training and supervision to ensure quality care. To strengthen training and supervision for CATS, we integrated WHO-UNICEF’s program, Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial Support Program (EQUIP) into a CATS training. We found the efforts to be highly effective in building counselling skills and enthusiastically received by the CATS.	Click to watch	Download
4	Peer Training	California Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialist Certification	Giselle Galloway, CalMHSA	The California Mental Health Services Authority, CalMHSA, will provide information on the requirements for certification. The session will provide you with the latest updates on program developments and certification requirements to ensure that you receive the most comprehensive and up-to-date information.	Click to watch	Download
4	Peer Training	Working with Peers and Community Health Workers to Develop Motivational Interviewing E-Learning Modules	Adrienne Lapidos, University of Michigan Medical School	The project discussed in this presentation involved developing, launching, and evaluating a series of e-learning modules designed to teach motivational interviewing and action planning strategies to peers and Community Health Workers (CHWs). The project team consisted of UM faculty and a Community Advisory Board (CAB) of peers and CHWs as well as representatives from local community organizations and MDHHS. During today’s presentation, participants will (1) learn about the history of the project, (2) learn how to access the e-learning modules, (3) reflect on university-community partnerships.	Click to watch
4	Peer Training	Peer & Clinicians Collaborative Training	Orlando Vera, Peer Voices of Orange County	This multidisciplinary, multimodal approach will help peers and clinicians address a systematically overlooked area of their daily work: interactions with diametrically trained service providers (peers vs. clinicians). This training is designed to help both groups of service providers bridge the gap between their contradictory methods of helping consumers of mental and behavioral health. Benefits include overcoming and resolving clashes between peers and clinicians, learning how to more effectively collaborate and bond together, reducing client attrition & AMAs/ACAs, accelerating clients’ growth, and ensuring successful treatment.	Click to watch
	Peer Models	𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗥 𝗠𝗢𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗦
5	Peer Models	Empowering Futures: Integrating Advocacy Counseling within Employment Specialists, Digital Equity Initiatives, and Medi-Cal Peer Support Training and Placement	Dee Dee Thatcher, Mental Health Association of San Francisco	Explore the pivotal role of employment specialists as advocacy counselors. Our discussion will define Advocacy Counseling and how our Employent Specialists use it to identify barriers, and to empower individuals with lived experience to secure and maintain gainful employment. We will also address the issue of digital equity and present a case study of our successful laptop distribution program; designed to ensure peers have access to the digital tools necessary for employment and education. Our presentation will conclude by exploring both challenges and triumphs related to training and placing peers.	Click to watch
5	Peer Models	Introduction to Recovery Cafes: Peer Focused Healing Communities	Ken Goldstein, Recovery Café Network	Since 2004, Recovery Cafés have provided safe, healing communities for those recovering from SUDs, homelessness, mental health issues, and other life traumas. This session explains the Recovery Café model, examines the data and evidence-based practices behind how it works, and explores how Recovery Cafés are built on peer leadership and opportunities for personal growth. Participants will have their questions about the program answered, and have the opportunity to learn how to bring a peer-led Recovery Café to their communities.	Click to watch
5	Peer Models	SHARE! Collaborative Housing: Rapid Housing, Community, and Peer Support	Tom Haberkorn, Peer Bridger, SHARE! Collaborative Housing	SHARE! Collaborative Housing is a public-private partnership providing affordable, permanent supportive housing to disabled people in single-family houses throughout Los Angeles County. People with similar issues, such as vets, mental health consumers, people with diabetes, trauma issues, etc. live like college roommates, each paying approximately $500 to $900 monthly in a fully-furnished house. They build community and benefit from self-help support groups.	Click to watch	Download
5	Peer Models	A Chance to Grow : An Overview of Transitions – Mental Health Association and Growing Grounds Enterprises	Kendra Belch, Outreach and Presentations Coordinator; Shannon McDermott, High School Program Presenter; Anna Wiens, Growing Grounds Enterprises Program Manager; Sterling Snow, Growing Grounds Farm Program Supervisor; Larry Sander, WIG Intern and Growing Grounds Farm Employee; Jaylyn Tell, WIG Intern and Growing Grounds Farm Employee from Transitions-Mental Health Association	Come hear about the important work Transitions-Mental Health Association is doing along California's Central Coast as Kendra Belch, Outreach and Presentations Coordinator and Shannon McDermott, Highschool Program Presenter give an overview of the organization's programs. Then, dive deeper with us as we look specifically at TMHA’s Growing Grounds Programs with Program Manager, Anna Wiens and Program Supervisor, Sterling Snow. We will wrap up this hour-long session with a panel discussion lead by two Growing Grounds Farm Employees and WIG Interns, Larry Sanders and Jaylyn Tell. Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA) is dedicated to eliminating stigma and promoting recovery and wellness for people with mental illness through work, housing, community, and family support services on the Central Coast of California. Growing Grounds Farm in Santa Maria combines therapeutic horticulture and vocational training to provide individuals living with a mental illness employment in a supportive environment where personal growth can be realized.	Click to watch
5	Peer Models	What Peer Support Looks Like Throughout the Lifespan	Laura Callen, Hands Across Long Island	Peer support is more than just a service that can be provided to those in need. In its simplest form peer support is human connection through shared experience. Peer support naturally starts as young as childhood and lasts throughout someone's life. As a person ages the style of peer support that is needed evolves as well. This workshop aims to delve into the different types of peer support that exist during different stages of life i.e; Youth Peer, Family Peer, Certified Peers etc..., and how these peers support folks in these stages. There are some specialties we will go into as well within these peer roles such as the CRPA-Y/F. The goal of this presentation is to showcase the importance and versatility of Peers throughout the lifespan.	Click to watch	Download
5	Peer Models	Peer Support Unveiled: The Power of Asking the Rare Questions	Kathy Cash, US Army Veteran; CPSS	This webinar will focus on often-overlooked aspects of peer services and navigate beyond common inquiries, addressing pivotal yet infrequently posed questions that reinforce effective peer support. By exploring vulnerability, cultural competence, qualifications, stigma reduction, technological integration, and the symbiotic relationship between research and practice, we illuminate the transformative potential of inquisitive insights.	Click to watch	Download
5	Peer Models	Pioneering Emotional Expertise for Global Change - The Chair of Joy™ Revolution	Sheryl Lynn, JOYELY, LLC	The JOYRISE keynote presents a concept whose time has come, delivering a potent message that delves into the profound significance of JOYRISE as a title in today’s world. Discover how this concept unveils two distinct yet equally impactful interpretations. First, Joy is readily accessible, enabling you to summon it at will. This process harmonizes your brain and heart through simple cues, resulting in a fundamental shift in your emotional landscape. Second, JOYRISE transforms into a movement—an inspiring vision where individuals, communities, and societies collectively embrace the power of joy.	Click to watch	Download
	Serving Specific Populations	𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖 𝗣𝗢𝗣𝗨𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦
6	Serving Specific Populations	Forensic Peer Mentoring: Go ahead, Make My Day!	George Braucht, Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist (CARES) Academy and Forensic Peer Mentor Ready4Rentry; Lindsey Sizemore, Certified Peer Specialist, Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network	This workshop introduces crime desistance as the research and practice basis for Forensic Peer Mentoring: Ready4Reentry, a workforce development credential for Certified Peer Specialists who have lived experience in the carceral systems and with mental illness and/or substance use.	Click to watch	Download
6	Serving Specific Populations	The Contemporary Forms of Exploitation Faced by Street-Connected Children in the Hostile Economic Environment of Zimbabwe	Prince Dzingirai, University of Kwazulu Natal, Women's University in Africa; Loreen Musemburi, Women's University in Africa, Zimbabwe Open University	This paper will explore the contemporary form of exploitation exhibited to children living in the streets of Zimbabwe. The paper shall use the mixed research method and auto-ethnographic research design to explore the contemporary exploitative conceptions faced by children living in the streets of Harare. The researcher shall use purposive and snowball sampling method to select the participants. Data shall be analysed in line with mixed research method.	Click to watch	Download
6	Serving Specific Populations	How to refer LGBTQIA+ communities to Self-Help Support Groups	Discussion and sharing resources with LGBTQIA+ Peers and Allies	Discussion and sharing resources with LGBTQIA+ Peers and Allies	Click to watch	Download
6	Serving Specific Populations	Facilitating Neuro-Affirmative Peer Support Groups	Anne Nicholson, Certified Peer Support Specialist, Painted Brain	Facilitating Neuro-Affirmative Peer Support Groups will be a structured roundtable discussion about what it takes to facilitate peer support groups for individuals who identify as neurodivergent, including autism, ADHD, etc.	Click to watch	Download
6	Serving Specific Populations	Addressing the Recovery Support Needs of People with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (IDD)	Jordan Smelley, Peer Support Specialist	The purpose of this presentation is to help Peer Support Specialists as well as the Recovery Community at large better understand the potential support needs of people with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities with or without co-occurring Mental Health and/or Substance Use Challenges that they interact with either socially, academically, and/or professionally by providing examples of potential support needs through use of personal lived experiences and methods that can be used to help address support needs as well as viewing a recorded interview by Kari Dunn Burron discussing The Incredible 5 Point Scale which Kari co-created with Mitzi Curtis.	Click to watch	Download
	Self-care	𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙-𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘
7	Self-care	Move the Muscles and the Muscles Retrain the Brain: Exemplary Health and Wellness Practices for Rapidly Changing Environments	Seti Kargbo, Peer Support Specialist, SHARE!	Explore the dynamic between regular physical activity and mental health in this presentation. Drawing on extensive research surrounding the effects of abuse on the brain, I delve into the transformative impact of self-empowered recovery, advocating for the implementation of self-help support groups into communities and institutions as a primary solution.	Click to watch
7	Self-care	The 5 Pillars of Recovery to Mental Wellness	Jared Bendifallah, Peer Support Specialist	Implementing these 5 Pillars can lead to profound growth and healing over time: basic stability; having a self-care plan; trusting the process of recovery; finding your community; expanded self-awareness and intuition	Click to watch	Download
7	Self-care	Peace Work: From Reactor to Creator - The Value of Taking 100% Responsibility for the Lives We Lead	Noelle Pollet, Heart Circle Consulting	Peace Work is a highly transformative, engaging and readily duplicable format, based on the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). It involves structured group-work that uses interactive activities to affirm, invite communication, collaboration, etc. Participants routinely enjoy remarkable connection and a sense of bonded trust; very productive for learning new skills and gaining insight into ourselves and others. During this workshop we dig deep into the liberation available with a shift in perception from seeing ourselves as victims: of brain chemistry, trauma, a dysfunctional “system” …anything! And claim our True identities: powerful children of Creation.	Click to watch

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#PeerTraining #PeerSpecialist #PeerSupportSpecialist #PeerSupport #mentalhealth #recovery #community #powerofcommunity #inclusion #social #wellbeing #RecoveryIsPossible #RecoveryWorks #PeerWorkforceConference #peerworkers #peerworkforce #peerleaders #peerleadership #PeerSupportWorks #SocialSupport #innovation #SystemTransformation #PeerSupportSpecialists #DifferentStrokes #effectivepeerservices #peerworkers #DifferentStrokesForDifferentFolks #CulturalHumility #certifiedsupportpeerspecialist #peercertification #thrivepeersupport #peersupprtspecialistcertification #yale #ucberkely #rutgers #rutgersuniversity #universityoftexas #georgemasonuniversity #randcorporation #communityfirst#community #mentalhealthcare #depressionawareness #mentalhealthawarenessmonth #mentalwellness #mentalillness #mentalhealthadvocate #mentalillnessrecovery #mentalhealthmatters #peer2peer #peerrun #peerleaders #peertraining #peerspecialistjob #peerspecialistjobs #peerrespite #supportgroup #supportgroups #selfhelpsupportgroup #selfhelpsupportgroups #substanceuse #diversity #health #addiction #addictionrecovery #mentalhealthissues #mentalhealthissue

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news & events

Watch all 34 Video Presentations!

Wednesday, January 31, 2024 from 9 AM to 6:30 PM.

Sponsored by SCRA Society fo r Community R esearch and Action and SHARE! the Self-Help And Recovery Exchange

2023 Peer Workforce Conference: Bridging Practice and Research

2022 Peer Workforce Conference: Bridging Practice and Research

2022 Supervision of Peer Workforce Conference

2020 Supervision of Peer Workforce Conference

Follow SHARE! on social media:

Like this:

news & events

Watch all 34 Video Presentations!

Wednesday, January 31, 2024 from 9 AM to 6:30 PM.

Sponsored by SCRA Society for Community Research and Action and SHARE! the Self-Help And Recovery Exchange

2023 Peer Workforce Conference: Bridging Practice and Research

2022 Peer Workforce Conference: Bridging Practice and Research

2022 Supervision of Peer Workforce Conference

2020 Supervision of Peer Workforce Conference

Follow SHARE! on social media:

Share this:

Like this:

Sponsored by SCRA Society fo r Community R esearch and Action and SHARE! the Self-Help And Recovery Exchange