March 2025 CPS & CPPS Supervisor Community of Practice
Michelle Laga is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Peer Specialist at Wisconsin Community Services in Milwaukee. She is also a State of Wisconsin Certified Peer Specialist Trainer. She received her Master’s of Art Therapy at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee in 2013. Michelle offers clinical supervision, support and coordination to two programs at WCS. Michelle identifies as a person in long term recovery from substance use and mental health issues. She celebrated 14 years of continuous sobriety on 3/8/2025. Michelle has a 12 year old loveable dog Watson. She loves to travel, go fishing, swimming, hiking, watch sci fi tv shows/movies and play video games. She also loves to spend time with friends and family.
How to maintain professional boundaries as a supervisor of certified peer specialists will be discussed. The differences and similarities of supervising and maintaining boundaries with peer specialists you supervisor versus other professionals will be outlined. Various scenarios involving professional boundaries as a CPS supervisor will be shared and discussed in order to learn from each other’s experience.
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, April 10th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on April 17th, 2025. 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
February 2025 CPS & CPPS Supervisor Community of Practice
Shirley Drake is Director of Peer Specialists Limited (PSL).
PSL provides Family Engagement and Advocacy services, long-term Parent Peer Support services for families enrolled in Children’s Mental Health Services and Wraparound systems of care. In addition, PSL offers a Teen Outreach Program to middle school and those that are juvenile justice system involved.
As a Certified Peer Specialist and State Trainer, she is Secretary of the Milwaukee County Mental Health Board representing the peer voice on County mental health budget and policy decisions.
Diverse perspectives exist on leadership among generations. This Community of Practice will present information on each generational cohort and discuss the differences. We will learn skills and strategies that can enable more effective communication and practical strategies to utilize the differences and strengths to build your team.
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 13th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on March 20th, 2025. 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 Supervisor Community of Practice
Rylee Jenich (They/Them) is the peer program manager at Solstice House Peer Run Respite & Warmline. As a radical queer harm reductionist, they seek to subvert systems of oppression by building alternative pathways towards healing, connection and love.
This training offers an alternative approach to peer supervision, one centered in connection, agency & accountability. A unique practice focused on relationship building as a pathway towards a liberated peer workspace. Together we will envision ways of honoring the fidelity of peer support best practices as we build connections that challenge and protect against systemic barriers.
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 5th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on December 12th, 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 Supervisor 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.
Peer mentors regularly work with individuals and families in crisis and our organizations are often in a state of change, which makes it difficult to create routine and plan ahead – so everything feels like a crisis.
At CC We Adapt we have been using Stephen Covey’s four quadrants to help us manage our way out of a crisis orientation to help peer mentors become more impactful with participants and help our organization become more effective. Our goal is to replace the common practices of time management with more highly effective practices.
| Common Practices | Highly Effective Practices |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Objectives:
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 7th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on November 14th, 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 Supervisor Community of Practice
Thursday, August 22nd, 2024 from 1:30 – 3:00 pm CT
Abigail is the Executive Director at The La Crosse Lighthouse Inc, a small (501c3) non-profit organization in La Crosse, WI that operates The La Crosse Lighthouse Peer Run Respite and Warmline. The La Crosse Lighthouse offers 24/7 phone support and 1–7 night respite stays for individuals who have experienced mental health and/or substance use challenges and other life interrupting events. Being a strong advocate for equity and social change, Abigail took the opportunity as Executive Director to reorganize the structure of The La Crosse Lighthouse to reflect grassroots peer support approaches, greater pay equity and shared responsibility.
Abigail received her Wisconsin Peer Specialist Certification in 2021 and Intentional Peer Support Certificate in 2023. She was named the 2024 Shining Star recipient from the Mental Health Coalition of the Greater La Crosse Area and presented at the 2024 Wisconsin Peer Recovery Conference on Challenging Organizational Norms and Paving the Way for Equity. Her experience includes navigating long term substance use and mental health challenges, incarceration, surviving domestic violence and PTSD. She holds a strong knowing that personal experiences offer a value that formal education cannot duplicate. Abigail believes in offering alternatives to clinical and medical model interventions for those navigating a self-determined wellness path.
Peer work gives voice to those that have lived through difficult life interrupting events and proves there are many pathways to self-defined wellness. In her personal time, Abigail gardens, plays video games and most importantly, loves her animal cohabitants.
This presentation will challenge what we have come to accept as normal hierarchal organizational structure and explore using the skillsets that already exist within our teams to trim the budget, provide opportunities for growth and lessen the wage gap between administrative and direct staff. Seeing all members as skilled contributors cultivates innovation and community. We will learn how respecting all positions as essential will inevitably build and grow a strong organization, impacting staff turnover and job satisfaction. Peers are a wealth of knowledge and recognizing those skills while providing an opportunity to use them builds the peer, builds the organization and builds confidence that we are capable. Together we can find a better way.
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 5th. Certificates of Participation will be sent to those completing the evaluation form by 4:30pm on September 12th. 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.
