About These Services

Peer specialist services provide individuals with opportunities to support, mentor, and assist individuals to achieve community inclusion, participation, independence, recovery, resiliency and/or productivity.

Peer Support Services

Peer Support Specialists strive to empower individuals to achieve their hopes, dreams and goals and connect them with their personal recovery journey.  Peer Support Specialists have walked the path of recovery from mental illness. They have a special ability to gain trust and respect of individuals based on shared experience and perspectives with disabilities, and with planning and negotiating human services systems.

Peer Support Specialists facilitate evidenced-based groups including:

• Whole Health Action Management (WHAM)
• Healing Voices

See brochures below for more information.

Peer Mentoring Services

Peer Mentoring Services provide adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) with opportunities to support, mentor and assist individuals to achieve community inclusion, independence, and productivity. Peer Mentors are individuals with I/DD who have a unique skill level from their experience in utilizing services and supports to achieve their goals. Peer Mentors offer the benefit of their personal experiences, passing along encouragement and support to help others construct their own advocacy.

Activities may include:

• Sharing personal stories of advocacy for the purpose of supporting self-advocacy, independence, person-centered planning goals, and arrangements that support self-direction
• Navigating transportation systems
• Connecting individuals with community resources
• Identifying recreation opportunities
• Providing information on entitlements
• Assisting individuals to move towards independence
• Providing housing information
• Providing vocational information

Youth Peer Support Services

Youth Peer Support is a peer-delivered service for youth and young adults. It is designed to support youth and young adults with a serious emotional disturbance/serious mental illness (SED/SMI) through shared activities and interventions in the form of direct support, information-sharing and skill-building. These services support youth and young adults by building a strong relationship based on mutual respect and strategic self-disclosure to increase hope, confidence, self-advocacy skills, and decision-making abilities.

Monday Night Activities

This program is aimed at providing group social activities and community involvement for persons with SMI or I/DD residing in Alpena and the surrounding area.

Activities include:

• Bingo
• Alpena Civic Theatre
• Birthday Celebrations
• Movies
• Night to Shine Prom
• Boat rides
• Other outdoor activites