The Project
The Community Integration Project will implement a recovery-oriented approach to helping people with a mental health condition, a substance use condition, or both initiate and sustain their recovery.
The key components include:
- Assisting participants in identifying their own interests, gifts and skills, passion, life goals and hopes for the future, as well as personal sources of resilience and hope.
- Strengthening existing community connections and building new ones that can help people move forward in their own recovery journey – connections might include natural support like self-chosen faith communities, recovery community organizations, recreational groups, and other places and people that can support living life as contributing citizens.
- Fostering friendships where participants help each other address and work to overcome challenges faced when starting a recovery path.
- Peer Specialists – people who combine group facilitation skills with lived experience will serve at the core of this project.
- Assisting people in identifying and connecting with the supports and services that will help them sustain their wellness and recovery over time.
Job Basics:
- Hours per week – 40
- Salary – $15 per hour
- Paid training – 9 days
- Application deadline – May 20th, 2014
Job Tasks:
- Facilitate groups of 8 to 12 in which participants help each other identify personal strengths, interests, social relationships, hopes for the future, and sources of well–being, as well as learn new knowledge and skills that can support their recovery journey
- Support participants in finding community opportunities, resources, and options that match their own interests and hopes for the future
- Support participants in becoming more comfortable with self-advocacy
- Support participants in building personal skills and confidence by sharing your own recovery story and how you have moved forward in life
- Serve as a role model who shares personal strengths and skills as well as the message that recovery is possible
- Facilitate individual meetings with participants to assist them in identifying their needs, preferences, and goals related to services
- Provide recovery check-ups for individuals who have transitioned from the service settings into the community
- Support individuals in developing comprehensive recovery plans
- Assist individuals in identifying their personal obstacles to recovery
- Connect participants to relevant community resources, which may include periodically accompanying them on first visits to new resources
- Participate in orientation, training, staff meetings, and supervision services
- Write notes that describe client encounters and group experiences
Applicant Qualifications:
Those who wish to apply must,
- Be able to work well as a partner and mentor with participants
- Be comfortable with:
- facilitating groups (some group facilitation experience is highly desirable)
- learning about community opportunities, resources, and other options available
- using their own life experience to help others – especially their experience in recovery and ability to self-advocate
- accessing low-cost transportation and navigating the community independently
- Be familiar with the communities where participants will want to make connections
- Be in touch with their own interests, life goals, and sources of well-being – and a strong desire to learn to help others
- Be flexible and open to multiple, personally chosen pathways in recovery and living in the community (recognizing that no single approach works for everyone)
- Be strong in their belief that people can move forward in life in recovery – and have the ability to convey this perspective to others
- Be open to learning how to work as a team member, bringing special skills and experience to help participants in their recovery journey
- Have excellent people skills that enable them to establish a rapport and put others at ease
- Have the ability to express themselves in both written and verbal communication
- Comfortable with working individually and in a team
- Willing to share personal life experience and use it to motivate, comfort, and inspire others
- Ability to demonstrate empathy
- Ability to work with diverse populations and cultural backgrounds
- Comfortable with working independently in community settings
- A high level of energy and commitment
- Acceptance of extremely flexible working hours
