July 2024 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice
You might be wondering why and where re-entry fits in my life. I am a mother of 5 children, 2 girls and 3 boys. Of my 5 children I have had 2 older boys in and out of the State of Wisconsin DOC system. I also worked for the DOC for a very short time and found that working in a prison was just like being in prison with them. I have struggled helping my 2 boys stay out of prison from the day they went in. I wanted to find ways to help them, so I began my long road to finding answers. I started by researching ways to help my loved one, and I found I thought I knew how to help but it was wrong.
Between research, working in the prison system and asking questions to in house prisoners I found that each person is an individual and each person’s needs are different even though they might be the same.
The topic will be re-entry from prison to home viewing this from both sides. During this conversation I will explain both sides, how can they connect and have better communication. We will explore areas of need for both sides of re-entry. Reminding the new releasee and the family by working together we can reduce recidivism.
The process of starting over. There will be a discussion pertaining to both sides of re-entry with expectations of the new releasees and the expectations of the family members. Ana will bring up the topic of conditioned individuals and how to communicate these feelings, a discussion of the word S.O.U.P. and what it means. Available resources will also be shared and depending on the size of the session, Ana will do a mini-introduction of each of us.
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, August 1st. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on August 8th, 2024. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
June 2024 CPS & CPPS Supervisor Community of Practice
Thursday, June 20th, 2024 from 1:30 – 3:00 pm CT
Before beginning work as a Certified Peer Specialist and Recovery Navigator with Wisconsin Community Services in April of 2022, April was a teacher of high/middle school students with special needs and Library Media Specialist for grades K-8 in Milwaukee Public Schools. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Communications specializing in Multi-Cultural Communication from UW-Milwaukee. She is a mother of 5, grandmother of 10 and a member of a cultivated support system in the community.
I started out in the recovery world in a leadership role where I directed the Wisconsin Walk for Recovery (now Milwaukee Walks for Recovery) for three years, increasing participation in the walk significantly over the course of my tenure. From there, I delved into advocacy work, using my personal journey as a gender diverse person to provide guidance and education on various topics affecting LGBTQ+ people. During the ensuing years, I earned my bachelor’s degree, certification as a peer specialist, peer specialist training facilitator, and opiate impacted family support specialist.
Over the last several years I have worked as a peer specialist in many capacities, at a shelter for women and children, for Milwaukee County Crisis Services, and with Outreach Community Health Center’s targeted case management team. I practice peer support from the understanding that empathy, inner-calmness, cultural reverence, and compassionate boundaries are powerful forces that support healing and connection.
As of late, I have been studying the finer points of grant writing and contract administration as I prepare myself to once again step into leadership roles. I am considering various avenues to use my knowledge and experience to continue to serve my communities. As my journey carries on, all I know for sure is that I must never stop putting people first. As long as we sincerely value ourselves and each other, potential knows no bounds.
Our “Mission Drift” workshop explores how to balance idealism with the challenging realities of working in systemic environments. As peer specialists, we act as catalysts for change, bringing essential and fresh perspectives to places that may not fully recognize or value our unique approach, which emphasizes individual-focused care and uplifting marginalized voices. We’ll discuss how initial enthusiasm can sometimes fade when faced with the complexities of the workplace. This workshop will delve into self-care, maintaining our integrity, and developing strategies for peer specialists to effectively navigate these dynamics. Our goal is for each participant to leave equipped with the tools to succeed without compromising their core values.
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, July 11th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on July 18th, 2024. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
June 2024 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice
Thursday, June 20th, 2024 from 1:30 – 3:00 pm CT
In “Breaking Down Stigma Barriers”, you will learn how to: address and recognize stigma barriers, recognize what stigma looks like, how to use compassion, support, and understanding to address stigma and change outcomes.
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, July 4th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on July 11th, 2024. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
April 2023 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice
April 20th, 2023 from 1:30 – 3:00 pm CT
David Carlson is the founder and co-owner of C.C. We Adapt, co-founder/co-owner of Next Generation Properties, LLC, and co-founder/co-owner of Next Generation Mentors. David is going into his third year at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, where his focus areas are Healthcare Law and Healthcare Compliance. David has a background of diverse experiences. He is an early childhood trauma survivor. He has significant lived experience with youth and adult incarceration, as well as youth and adult homelessness. He is an Army National Guard combat veteran. David’s life now revolves around his family, wife Alicia Carlson, two sons, Knox and Lenox Carlson, and a new baby on the way. David has dedicated his life to expanding resources for more people from backgrounds like his to have the opportunity to enjoy the promises of life, liberty, and happiness–realities that have for too long only been enjoyed by a privileged class.
Brianna Traut is a Certified Peer Specialist with C.C. We Adapt as well as the General Manager Next Generation Properties.
Brianna is a single mom and has a 3-year-old son named Rowan! Rowan is the reason she pushes herself every day to be better. She is recovering from addiction to opiates and has been in recovery for 5 years. Throughout her addiction, she had periods of incarceration and rehab stays and she never had someone who truly understood her or what she was going through. Eventually, she was able to get into treatment court through Eau Claire County and successfully complete the program.
Brianna came to a point in her life where she felt things were changing around her, however, she felt she was still in the same place. She wanted to grow and begin helping others who have experiences similar to her; and, this is where she found peer support. Peer support completely changed her life. She felt her purpose was to help others, especially because she could connect with the individuals and feel like she has been there. By being in these similar situations and places before, Brianna now gives people hope in any situation that they may be in.
Tenant Support Mentorship is a concept that was created by C.C. We Adapt and that has become its own form of peer services under Next Generation Mentors. This presentation will illuminate how peer service providers are uniquely positioned to take on the housing epidemic that is facing every community, and that is negatively impacting marginalized community members at a disproportionate rate.
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, May 4th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on May 11th, 2023. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
January 2023 CPS & CPPS Supervisor’s Community of Practice
February 23rd, 2023 from 1:30 – 3:00 pm CT
Peter Bullimore
The chair of the National Paranoia Network, Pete Bullimore, is testament to how effective accepting and working with voices and paranoia can be.
Pete heard his first voice aged seven. “I heard a child’s voice telling me to keep going, that everything would be OK. It was reassuring, a bit like an imaginary friend,” he says. But as bad things happened in my life the voices increased in number, eventually turning sinister and aggressive. “They told me to set myself on fire, to slash myself and destroy myself, often 20 or 30 voices all shouting at me at once,” he says. By his mid-twenties Pete had lost his business, his family, his home, everything. “The voices just encompassed my life; I curled up in a chair and didn’t wash or eat. “I was locked in a world of voices, paranoia and depression, and it was probably the most frightening time of my life,” he says.
Pete spent more than a decade after that on heavy medication, but the voices never went away. He had to get out of the psychiatric system to recover. It was only when he came off the medication and met people who share his experiences at the hearing voices network that he was able to stop being so afraid of the voices and actually start listening to them. He changed his relationship with his voices and worked through the meaning of his voices and paranoia. He now runs his own training and consultancy agency delivering training on hearing voices childhood trauma and paranoia internationally. He is a guest lecturer at fourteen Universities in the UK. He has set up Maastricht Centre’s at the Radbone unit in Derby and the Hartington unit in Chesterfield in collaboration with Derby NHS trust; he has now launched a Maastricht Approach center in Bradford and a National Maastricht Center in Telford
“I wouldn’t want to get rid of my voices now, they’re part of me,” he says.
Workshop will include:
1) How common is it to hear voices?
2) How voices can be experiences in different ways
3) Three phases of hearing voices & understanding the metaphor of voices
4) Thought stopping
5) Short term coping strategies for voices hearer’s
6) The history of paranoia
7) Identifying the role of neglect in paranoia
8 ) The three stages of paranoia
9) Understanding the body state information
10) Working with unusual beliefs
11) Decoding beliefs
We invite you to please fill out the evaluation survey link (click here) if you attended this community of practice gathering or if you watch the recording. The survey will close at 4:30pm on Thursday, March 9th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on March 16th, 2023. No evaluation surveys will be accepted for CEH credit after the evaluation survey’s closing date/time.
This website is managed and maintained by staff at Access to Independence working on the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative. The words, views, and values presented herein are not necessarily representative of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
