About Our Trainings

Wisconsin Certified Peer Specialist and Certified Parent Peer Specialist Training

The trainings coordinated by the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative utilize the state-approved, integrated (covering both mental health and substance use lived experience) curricula for Certified Peer Specialists (CPS) and Certified Parent Peer Specialists (CPPS).

CPS training is composed of 52 hours in topics including:

• Principles of strengths-based recovery
• Certified Peer Specialist practice overview
• Ethics and boundaries in peer support
• OARS communication framework (open questions, affirmations, reflective listening, summary)
• Advocating alongside peers, as a professional, for the CPS role, and systems change
• Effective self-disclosure and sharing
• Culture, power, and privilege
• Trauma-informed peer support
• Person-centered approaches and supporting many pathways to recovery
• Navigating crises in the peer support relationship
• And much more…

CPPS training is composed of 52 hours in topics including:

• Child development
• Family resilience
• Trauma-informed care
• Family-driven support
• Mental health recovery
• Substance use challenges
• Advocating alongside families
• Youth and family service system navigation
• Effective self-disclosure and communication
• And much more…

Trainers have their own lived experience, have been trained in the effective facilitation of the CPS or CPPS curriculum, and were selected in partnership with Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Two state-approved trainers facilitate each training with one trainer focusing on mental health lived experience and the other focusing on lived experience of substance use challenges.

Online Training

In response to COVID-19, we have brought all trainings online. The 52- hour trainings are most oftentimes split into 13 4-hour training dates for online trainings. Trainers and hosting organizations determine the time slots that make most sense for them, with attention also being given to training accessibility.

The Zoom online meeting platform is utilized for effective virtual training and participant engagement with content and skill-building the curriculum offers.