[Hiring] Peer Specialist @Services for the Underserved

Role Description

The Peer Specialist plays a key role in engaging individuals and families, supporting recovery, and connecting participants to services through outreach, advocacy, and lived experience.

• Outreach/Engagement/Bridge Building: Helping to facilitate engagement by forging strong connections with participants and families residing in Brooklyn and surrounding communities. Undertaking outreach activities designed to promote community awareness of S:US services, encouraging help-seeking, and at times serving as a bridge between treatment team members and participants when they experience ambivalence about substance use treatment (including Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) and outpatient Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment).
• Combating Overdose: Peer Specialists will be certified to train and distribute Naloxone kits to individuals and their family members.
• Relationship Building: Developing authentic, meaningful relationships with individuals and families through empathy, sharing experiences, listening and collaborating with genuine curiosity and interest.
• Embracing Creative Narratives: Peer Specialists need to be able to understand, share and discuss multiple frameworks for understanding life experiences such as substance use and 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.
• Advocacy: Peer Specialists advocate with and for program participants both in the larger community and on the team.
• Co-Creating Support and Wellness Tools: 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.
• Influencing Team Culture: Whenever possible, positively influencing the team culture by advocating for clients, promoting a youth 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.
• Team Communication: 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.

Qualifications

• Certified Recovery Peer Advocate (or Provisional) Certification required (CRPA)
• The Peer Specialist should have an understanding of 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 substance use/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 substance use/mental health services is required
• Adhere to on call cell phone system to facilitate crisis intervention, emergencies and other situations that require immediate action.
• Significant travel to engage clients at shelters, in their community and other settings is required; 75%.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package designed to support your wellbeing and development
• Health and wellness resources
• Generous PTO
• Professional development opportunities

Company Description

S:US IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. We believe in fostering a culture built on our core values: respect, integrity, support, maximizing individual potential and continuous quality improvement.

S:US is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information.

S:US is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities, including allowance of the use of services animals.

To request reasonable accommodation or if you believe such a request was improperly handled or denied, contact the Leave Team at [email protected].