ABOUT
The Peer Support Workforce Project is an initiative within the Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health (TIEMH) and the South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC). It aims to enhance the role of peer support specialists in the mental health field by providing training, technical assistance, and knowledge dissemination.
The project promotes peer support integration within diverse mental health settings and fosters collaborations. Its goal is to create a more equitable and empowering mental health system that supports recovery and well-being for all.
RESOURCES
Introduction to Diversifying Funding & Grant Writing for Peer-Run Organizations
The South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) held the webinar titled “Introduction to Diversifying Funding & Grant Writing for Peer-Run Organizations webinar” on September 11, 2024. This 2-hour webinar provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities for peer-run organizations in creating sustainable financial plans. The presenters discussed ways that leaders can effectively promote their organizations with potential funders and partners, considerations for diversifying funding sources, and the basics of grant writing. At the end of this webinar, it is envisioned that participants will be able to: create a value proposition for their organization or program; describe different potential funding sources for peer-run organizations; list the basic components of a grant application; design goals and objectives for a new or existing program.
Hotline Peer Specialist Integration: Preliminary Considerations for Equity and Sustainability
Authors Kirill Staklo (he/him) and Nze Okoronta (they/them) provide an overview of the necessary information for integrating Peer Specialists in hotline programming for equity and sustainability. Topics include Intro to the Peer Role, Medical Trauma and Minority Stress, Hotline Work, Informed Consent and Harm Reduction, Best Practices in Service Establishment and Training, and further resources.
Recurrence of Use and Peer Certification Boards’ Rights and Responsibilities
The South Southwest MHTTC hosted Lyn Legere, MS who presented during our Peer Support Advisory Committee for Region 6 on Recurrence of Use and Peer Certification Boards’ Rights and Responsibilities. This presentation focused on helping to clarify roles when supporting the Peer Workforce regarding the recurrence of use.
- Presentation Slide Deck: Supporting the Peer Workforce: Clarifying Roles
Youth and Young Adult Peer Support Training (YAYAPS)
The Youth and Young Adult Peer Support training is a three-day training for peer supporters on the topics of youth voice and issues specific to youth navigating mental health or substance use challenges. YAYAPS is available for anyone who works, or is interested in working, as a peer specialist.
This training provides participants with a foundation for youth experience with mental health and substance use challenges, the unique issues for youth navigating recovery and youth-serving systems, and best practices and tools for peer specialists looking to support youth. The training will also encourage participants to consider how to use their own lived experience when supporting youth through structured reflection, group discussion, and interactive activities.
A special thanks to Via Hope, the organization where initial development of the Youth and Young Adult Peer Support training took place.
Reach out to our team at txinstitute4mh@austin.utexas.edu for information about upcoming trainings.
Igniting the Spark of Hope: Peer Support Conference 2021 Sessions
The Region 6 Peer Support Conference 2021, hosted by the South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center and led by our Peer Support Advisory Committee and Peer Conference Planning Committee, provided invaluable professional development and networking for peer support professionals. Below you’ll find video recordings of each session and supporting documents.
- Thought Exchange
- Radical Peer Support: Reimagining Care Systems & Mental Health with Yolo Akili Robinson
- Youth Peer Support Panel
- Punitive Justice and Community Health
- Parent Peer Support/Family Partner Panel
- Gender in Motion: A Conversation about Trans Experiences
- State Peer Support Best Practices
- Peer Support: A Disruptive Innovation with Pat Deegan
Peer Crisis Documents
These documents provide information about Peer Specialists in crisis settings, including general competencies for Peer Specialists in crisis work, Peer-Run Warmlines, Peer Navigation, Crisis Respite programs, Mobile Crisis Units, and Crisis Stabilization Units.
Subject matter experts were consulted on this project. The content here is not exhaustive. Contributors provided expertise; their contribution does not imply endorsement or opposition to the document.
- Peer Warm Lines
- Peer Navigation
- Peer Crisis Services Competencies
- Mobile Crisis Units
- Crisis Stabilization Units
- Crisis Respite
What is Peer Support? New Supervisor Information
In this interactive presentation, you will learn about the origin and values of peer support, the introduction and inclusion of peer support services in traditional service settings, the role of the supervisor in helping peer staff to remain true to peer support values, and some best practices for supervisors of this unique workforce.
Healing and Transformation Learning Academy (HTLA) Manual
The Healing and Transformation Learning Academy (HTLA) manual was created to guide how to facilitate this program. It’s intended to facilitate a process of professional growth and help participants create their “final project.”
The HTLA is founded on the principles of peer support, acknowledging and respecting the unique paths people have taken in their lives. Consequently, it does not have a predetermined outcome in mind. This framework empowers participants to explore unlimited pathways that will lead them to their intended destinations throughout their time in HTLA. Although this document provides detailed facilitator notes, the space is collaboratively created to meet individuals where they are.
Healing-Centered Virtual Facilitation Series
1. Healing & Power in Peer Support Curriculum
The Healing & Power in Peer Support training provides an overview of Healing-Centered Engagement and its principles as ways to deepen and advance the practice of peer support. Participants will explore concepts like holding space, radical acceptance, meaning-making, and power dynamics through deep reflection, experiential activities, and facilitated discussion.
This curriculum is helpful for new peer supporters or any peer supporters who are looking to refresh and deepen their skills. This curriculum should be facilitated by experienced peer specialists looking to support the peer support workforce in their community.
Healing & Power in Peer Support is the prerequisite training for our Virtual Facilitation through a Healing-Centered Lens training (coming soon).
2. Virtual Facilitation through a Healing-Centered Lens Curriculum
The Virtual Facilitation through a Healing-Centered Lens training curriculum expands upon the concepts learned in Healing & Power in Peer Support to support peer supporters who facilitate peer support trainings (or who are interested in facilitating peer support trainings) in strengthening their skills as Healing-Centered training facilitators.
This curriculum package is for communities to conduct a virtual training for peer supporters who have successfully completed the Healing & Power in Peer Support training. Over the course of four days, participants will explore how to integrate Healing-Centered Engagement principles into their peer support practice, navigate power dynamics that arise in learning spaces, and “hold the container” for training participants to engage in healing and meaning-making. This is a highly experiential training, where participants will integrate practice with their own lived experience through structured reflection, group discussion, and interactive activities.
- Virtual Facilitation through a Healing-Centered Manual
- Virtual Facilitation through a Healing-Centered Slide Deck
3. Healing-Centered Virtual Facilitation Guidebook: Creating & Sustaining Healing-Centered Virtual Learning Spaces
Description: The Healing-Centered Virtual Facilitation Guidebook: Creating & Sustaining Healing-Centered Virtual Learning Spaces offers a space for learning and reflection while you build your skills as a healing-centered peer supporter and/or facilitator of virtual peer support trainings. It weaves together practical technical skills, principles of Healing-Centered Engagement, trauma-informed care principles, and the recovery framework to highlight and sharpen the skills that are necessary for peer supporters to facilitate virtual learning spaces.
This guidebook serves as a freestanding (but supplementary) resource to two trainings developed by the South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center/Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health: (1) Healing and Power in Peer Support, and (2) Virtual Facilitation through a Healing-Centered Lens.
