December 2024 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice
I am an enrolled tribal member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Anishinaabe and a proud boarding school survivor. My journey has been shaped by personal encounters with the deep-seated effects of historical and intergenerational trauma, as well as the powerful process of recovery and healing. These lived experiences have fueled my passion for reclaiming our community’s strength, culture, and connection to the land. Driven by a commitment to holistic wellness and community revitalization, I am dedicated to restoring our traditional roles in the production and processing of resources within tribal nations. My work focuses on integrating regenerative agriculture practices, eco/agro therapies, and eco-friendly recreation into our community’s fabric. I believe that by weaving these elements with our cultural values and practices, we can foster sustainable development, support mental and emotional healing, and reconnect with the wisdom of our ancestors. My aspiration is to go beyond personal recovery, to inspire collective healing and empowerment within our community. I envision a future where our people are thriving, our land is restored, and our traditional practices are honored and upheld. Through this presentation, I hope to shed light on our past, ignite discussions about our present challenges, and inspire action towards a more resilient and self-determined future for the Lac Courte Oreilles community.
The presentation “Trespassing at Home” delves deep into the layered history of odaawaa-zaaga’iganiing aka Lac Courte Oreilles examining the profound effects of historical traumas and how they reverberate in the present. This journey begins with the arrival of French fur traders and settlers, marking the beginning of sustained foreign contact, and traces a timeline of significant events that have shaped the socio-cultural and economic landscape of Sawyer County. Through this comprehensive historical timeline, we will explore key moments such as forced relocations, the introduction of boarding schools, the loss of traditional lands and practices, and the erosion of community sovereignty. This legacy of displacement and cultural suppression has set the stage for the current crises facing the community, including the devastating impact of the opioid epidemic. The presentation will provide an in-depth analysis of how these historical traumas have interwoven with contemporary challenges, creating complex layers of trauma that persist within the community today. By understanding this timeline and the cumulative effect of these events, participants will gain a clearer perspective on the ongoing resilience of the LCO community and the path toward healing and revitalization.
Feedback Survey/CEH Information:
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, December 26th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on January 2nd, 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.
November 2024 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice
Linda Lenzke (she, her, hers) is the LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate for the OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin. She is a Wisconsin Certified Peer Specialist. As a member of the OutReach Harm Reduction Services Team, Linda fields inbound calls from community members, and facilitates weekly recovery meetings, including an LGBTQ+ Al-Anon Meeting for families and loved ones of people struggling with alcohol and substances, and Progress Not Perfection: LGBTQ+ Harm Reduction Recovery Meeting for people seeking recovery from alcohol, substances, and harming behaviors.
As a person in recovery for almost 40 years, Linda shares her lived experience with those who still struggle. Linda is a writer and storyteller and has presented at conferences and workshops on the subjects of harm reduction recovery, trauma, stigma, and the power of sharing stories from our lived experiences as pathways to recovery. With her OutReach colleagues, Linda conducts educational presentations in Madison, Dane County, and Southcentral Wisconsin. Linda is a member of the Suicide Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition (SPHRC), and the Queer Care Collective.
As Peer Specialists, one of our primary objectives is to earn and nurture trust with the peers with whom we’re working. To the best of our ability, we are tasked with creating relationships by active listening, ensuring mutual respect, and partnering and designing recovery plans to achieve the objectives the peer has identified. It’s critical that we need to meet the peer where they are.
What differentiates a Peer Specialist from other care providers is that we share our lived experience with our peers. We may have different origins of trauma, experience with substance use, stigma, and/or behavioral health challenges, yet our lived experience can help provide hope and pathways to recovery by working hand-in-hand with our peers.
To build and nurture this trust, it’s incumbent that we share our own stories, the challenges we’ve faced, and the struggles and successes we’ve encountered while overcoming them. It’s important to acknowledge our differences, identify common experiences, be accepting and nonjudgmental, as we listen closely to the peer, to identify how we can help. It’s critical that we remember that we are partners with our peers and our role is to support them as they navigate their journey of recovery and behavioral health.
In this webinar we will learn how sharing stories about our lives, and listening to the lived experience of our peers, helps build and facilitates trust. Interactive exercises in breakout groups will help demonstrate auditory, visual, and kinesthetic communication and learning styles.
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, November 28th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on December 5th, 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.
October 2024 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice
Shae Rising (He/Him They/Them) works in the Public Health and the mental health field with an emphasis of focused work on minoritized populations including minorities, Muslims, and the LGBTQ+ community. Writer, artist, healer, life coach, and motivational speaker. Shae is the Program Director at the nation’s first Veteran Respite, RR House and a Supervisor of the Uplift Wisconsin Statewide Warmline. Shae has professional publications in Community Health Assessment work with the North Shore Health Department, College Sexual Violence Research publication and symposium presentations as well as artistic works.
In this presentation, the history of warmlines and peer support will be discussed. We will also get into what has changed systematically and in community that has made warmlines and peer support necessary. Innovation in the field with technology and how this field has allowed for second chance employment for individuals. The better mental health outcomes for minoritized individuals and excluded communities will be the summary for the discussion.
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, October 31st. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on November 7th, 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.
August 2024 CPS & CPPS Community of Practice
Kaeden Watford (He/Him) is a black trans man, son, dad, partner, and friend. Due to the harm that has been caused to him throughout his life by various systems he has developed a passion for harm reduction, community, and healing. It is important to him to use his seat at the table to advocate for equity and inclusive spaces for marginalized and historically oppressed communities. His journey began while still being a resident in the Wisconsin prison system and he has been determined to create safe spaces for collective healing in the communities that he belongs to ever since.
Join us in this gathering to learn and explore WIPSEI’S new zoom networking, “Community Networking Group”, for Certified Peer Specialists and Certified Parent Peer Specialists! We will discuss both the logistics and the purpose behind this networking group!
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, September 12th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on September 19th, 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.
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.