Peer Specialist

Services For The Underserved, Inc.•New York, NY

2d•$45,000 - $45,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Peer Specialist will support tenant engagement and outreach by promoting awareness of S services, encouraging help-seeking, and advocating for participants’ needs and goals. Using lived experience and recovery-oriented approaches, the Peer Specialist will collaborate with participants to develop wellness tools, strengthen life skills, build self-awareness, and connect with community resources. The Peer Specialist will promote a supportive, inclusive team culture, communicate participant needs and safety concerns to the team, and complete required documentation in accordance with agency standards.

Requirements

High school diploma
It is preferable that the individual’s lived experience of mental health challenges includes experience with psychosis during youth.
Ideally the Peer Specialist can relate to all ages and cultures.
The Peer Specialist should understand the community in which the team is based with an awareness of available community resources.
The Peer Specialist should also be someone who has made positive and productive progress toward his or her own recovery.
Demonstrate good interpersonal communications skills and the ability to empathize with, relate to and effectively work with participants of mental health services.
Two years of active participation in mental health self-help activities, peer support or peer advocacy programs, or participant run organizations or similar experiences or programs required.
Must possess the ability/ willingness to disclose their recovery story (where appropriate) for the purposes of empowerment.
Excellent judgment/ ability to understand boundaries when working with participants of mental health services is required.
Adhere to on call cell phone system to facilitate crisis intervention, emergencies and other situations that require immediate action.

Nice To Haves

Peer Certification preferred.
Basic computer skills (e.g. MS Office suite and Windows)

Responsibilities

Helping to facilitate engagement with tenants, undertake outreach activities designed to promote community awareness of S:US services, encouraging help-seeking, and at times advocate for population served to maximum their full potential.
Peer Specialists need to be able to understand, share and discuss multiple frameworks for understanding life experiences such as psychosis with participants and the rest of the S:US team. Peer Specialists intentionally use language in the service of listening to understand and making space for complex personal stories of recovery and resilience.
Peer Specialists advocate with and for program participants both in the larger community and on the team.
Collaborate with participants to clarify their personal visions and develop their wellness toolkit. Along with other team members, Peer Specialists support participants in strengthening their self-awareness, building life skills, and connecting to resources and community outside of the S:US team.
Whenever possible, positively influencing the team culture by advocating for clients, promoting a friendly approach and encouraging the use of recovery-oriented language. S:US Peer Specialists also work actively within the team itself to help build an environment that operates from a belief in the human potential to grow and an understanding of human diversity.
Peer Specialists maintain open and frequent communication with the team. This includes reporting safety and other concerns to the team. Peer Specialists will also keep notes on visits with program participants as required by the provider agency. In the spirit of peer support, co-collaborating on reporting with the program participant is encouraged.