TRAINING | PeerZone

The following opportunity has been shared on behalf of a member or affiliate of the Austin Area African American Behavioral Health Network (4ABHN).

Is your organization trying to be more peer-centered and trauma informed?

Do you want to provide affordable professional development opportunities and a career path to support and maintain exceptional peer staff?

Does having easy-to-access workshops, resources and on-demand support for peer staff appeal to your organization?

If the answer is yes, you should check out PeerZone!

WHAT IS PEERZONE?

PeerZone is a series of peer-led workshops for people with lived experience of mental distress and addiction. The workshops are a combination of peer support and recovery education and provide a fun, interactive, safe structure for participants to share their experiences, learn self-management, and expand their horizons. Workshops explore distress, recovery, and major life domains such as lifestyle, relationships, housing, and employment. These pre-packaged, billable workshops can be offered as 18 three-hour or 36 ninety-minute sessions.

Since 2013, PeerZone has trained and supported over 300 facilitators in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US. PeerZone has been successfully piloted and all workshops are evaluated.

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR TRAINING

PeerZone offers a 4-day training for peer workers to become licensed facilitators who then deliver the billable workshops as part of their employment to people in their service or community.

Attached is a flyer with more information on PeerZone. We’re willing to travel to anywhere in the U.S. where we can find at least 8 people to attend the training, and we offer special organizational discount pricing for groups of 5 or more.

Post-training support includes monthly group videoconferences, advice on-demand, analysis and feedback of workshop evaluations, access to our mobile friendly website, improvements to workshops and new materials as developed.

Facilitators will also gain access to our new toolkit with 52 additional workshops filled with resources for use 1:1 and in shorter groups. The toolkits focus on formal evidence as well as lived experience perspectives. They are designed to offer people strategies to manage their mental distress, their physical health and their whole of life wellbeing. Check out the PeerZone toolkit website for more information https://www.peerzonetoolkit.com/.

HOW DOES PEERZONE WORK?

For service agencies PeerZone is a:

• SERVICE INNOVATION for provider organizations that invest in it.
• PRACTICE TOOL AND SUPPORT STRUCTURE for workers with lived experience who facilitate it.
• PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY for service users who participate in it.

For individual participants PeerZone works by:

• INVITING them to rebuild a more positive story of their lives.
• OFFERING tools for whole of life wellbeing.
• CREATING a community of mutual support.

HOW CAN I BRING PEERZONE TO MY AGENCY?

• We offer free 1:1 consultation for all interested agencies to learn more.
• We train your employees to become licensed PeerZone workshop facilitators.
• Employees facilitate PeerZone workshops as a billable service and part of their employment.
• We provide facilitators with a website, resources, on-demand support, and monthly group videoconferences.

FIND OUT MORE: Find out more about PeerZone’s background, workshops, resources and services.