Trainings

This website is the most up-to-date source of scheduled CPS and CPPS trainings in Wisconsin. If there is no training listed on this page that serves your county or tribe, that indicates there are no training events currently planned for your county or tribe.

For general information about the structure and content covered in our trainings, click here to learn more about our trainings.

Trainings Accepting Applications:

There are no trainings currently accepting applications. You can join our mailing list by filling out the form on the bottom of this page and follow us on social media to get notifications of future trainings.

We would like to stress that basic eligibility for Certified Parent Peer Specialist (CPPS) trainings requires that you have first-hand lived experience of being in a parenting role to a child with mental health and/or substance use experience.

Lastly, we highly encourage people to apply as soon as they are able if interested (i.e., plan to be on those links at noon on the day they open). We can only consider the first 50 applicants per training for potential participation. Once 50 applications are submitted, the application form will close. Statewide CPS trainings reach the 50-applicant maximum very quickly.

How Can I Apply for a Training?

Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) and Certified Parent Peer Specialist (CPPS) trainings are usually designed to serve specific regions of the state made up of various counties. Some trainings may even be specific to a single county or tribe. The listings for trainings on this website will specify to which county and/or tribe you must belong in order to apply.

If you see an upcoming training listed that serves your county or tribe, take note of the date and time applications open. The application for that training will be available on that same event listing at that date and time.

Filling out and submitting the online application:

It is important that you answer all required questions  (marked with an asterisk) on the online training application form. There are also formatting requirements in regards to dates and other fields. If required fields are not answered in the application form or the fields are entered incorrectly, it will register as an error and your application will not be submitted to us when you press the “submit” button.

This is what happens if you try to submit an application with errors:

• Applicant presses “submit” button
• Instead of being redirected to the “application submission page,” the training event listing and application page reloads
• This page now contains language telling the hopeful applicant that some fields were entered incorrectly (applicant must scroll down to see this)
• Incorrectly filled out or missing fields are highlighted in red
• Applicant should fix errors and resubmit
• Upon successfully addressing errors, the application submission page will appear

Please note: If the training event listing page reloads after attempting to submit your application, there is something wrong with your application, and you will need to follow the instructions to address any errors.

Application Review Process:

Applications close when the application deadline passes or when 50 applications are received, whichever is sooner. After applications close, trainers will begin reviewing applications, will reach out to no more than 25 applicants to schedule a virtual interview, and will select 14-18 training participants from the larger applicant pool.

The applicant review and participant selection process is the responsibility of trainers alone. Trainers will submit a roster of selected participants to the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative at least two weeks prior to the training start date. Please do not contact the Wisconsin Peer Specialist Employment Initiative about your selection decision during this review process, as we will not have updates for you. All applicants will be informed of their selection decision regardless of whether they were selected for a training or not.

If you are invited by trainers to participate in a training you will be expected to agree to the following to confirm your slot:

• Participant understands that if they withdraw from this training within 5 business days of its start date, they will not be eligible to apply for another training for that role (CPS or CPPS) for one year.

• Participants understands that full participation and presence is vital for effective training, and will reserve training hours for training participation only. Trainers may drop a participant from a training if a participant has not set aside the training hours for training participation and activities.

Attending the Training and Beyond:

As indicated above, if selected as a training participant, it is important that you attend the full training. Though full attendance is necessary to pass the training, it is not a guarantee of receiving the training certificate needed to then apply for taking the CPS or CPPS exam. Passing the training will require both attendance and demonstrating a basic understanding of the materials presented and skills needed in a Certified Peer Specialist or Certified Parent Peer Specialist.

Once you have passed the training and received the training certificate of completion, you may apply to take the statewide exam for the certification specific to your training.

There is currently no registration cost associated with trainings for selected participants.

There is a registration cost of $50 paid to the order of UW-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education when applying for the certification exam or recertification. Currently, this is the only cost associated with either the CPS role or the CPPS role.

Despite the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling striking down the statewide Safer-at-Home order, we will be continuing with all scheduled virtual trainings, and we will not be returning to offering in-person trainings at least until 2021.