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NAMI Missouri's 3-year Statewide Consumer Network Project, "Consumer Leadership and Engagement Project", will benefit adults with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) in Missouri using consumer-focused, peer-led, evidence-based program models. Project goals include increasing the number of mental health consumers involved in mental health policy making; increasing the number of peers trained to provide stigma-reducing presentations and facilitate support groups; growing the availability of peer support continuing education opportunities; and creating new opportunities for consumers to receive peer support through programs that promote peer support and social inclusion. Adults with SMI will be positively impacted by the proposed activities. Project outreach will focus on adults with SMI from four specific underserved and under-represented populations, including: 1.) Ethnic, racial, and cultural minority groups; 2.) Sexual orientation and gender minorities; 3.) Individuals with mental health and co-occurring disorders. Programs include the In Our Own Voice (IOOV) presentation program, NAMI Connection Recovery support group program, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) education course and NAMI Smarts for Advocacy education and outreach program, which includes hands-on Partners in Policy leadership training and Peer Advocate leadership service. Through these and other programs and outreach, we will reach 2,000 people each year of the grant, for a total of 6,000 individuals served through the life of the grant.

The outcomes of Building Peer Leadership in California will be: - Creating training and a handbook, a blueprint for building capacity of mental health peer-run organizations, while categorizing the existence and needs of those agencies - Empowering and increasing the levels of people of color and marginalized groups in peer leadership positions - Continuing to bring the voices of consumers to the policy leaders, especially related to the implementation of the new Peer Certification program. This project will seek to achieve the over-arching vision of transforming the behavioral health system by building peer leadership in California through the expansion of peer-run programs and peer support. This is in alignment with CAMHPRO's mission, to transform communities and the mental health system throughout California to empower, support, and ensure the rights of consumers, eliminate stigma, and advance self-determination for all those affected by mental health issues by championing the work of consumers and consumer-run organizations. This proposal responds to historic and unique opportunities in California's current behavioral health landscape. California is newly implementing a certification program for Peer Support Specialists who will provide state-reimbursed services in behavioral health settings. The state has made a large multi-year funding commitment to the expansion of the behavioral health workforce, including peer specialists. The state has also invested in the expansion of peer run programs throughout the state. At the same time, California peers are in the process of making a concerted effort to bring peers of ethnic, cultural, and marginalized groups to leadership positions in peer run programs and in the peer movement. Responding to this unique landscape and to CAMHPRO's overarching vision, Building Peer Leadership in California proposes the following goals: Goal 1: To improve administrative and management capacity of peer-run organizations providing services in California. Goal 2: To build peer empowerment by expanding the peer workforce to implement peer support services across California. Goal 3: To increase leadership representation in the peer movement by people of color and marginalized groups. Building Peer Leadership in California will host 18 training webinars throughout three years that provide tangible education for building and growing sustainable peer-run organizations. The content of the training will culminate in a published handbook. Additionally, there will be six in-person forums that focus specifically on growing the representation of people of color and marginalized groups in peer leadership, each hosted by peer-run organizations in each of the five regions of California. Finally, the program will continue relationships with the Department of Health Care Services, the California Mental Health Services Authority, and county behavioral health administrations to uplift and empower the voices of consumers in the creation, planning, implementation, and quality management of mental health programs and services to ensure that the recovery values and needs and priorities of consumers are incorporated into them.

This project will: (1) equip Maryland's Statewide Consumer Network and independent consumer-operated Wellness & Recovery Organizations with skills and support to improve effectiveness and ensure sustainability through training, technical assistance, leadership development and networking opportunities; (2) recruit, train, place, and mentor peers of diverse backgrounds into advisory committees and working groups for key state behavioral health advisory, policy, planning, and implementation efforts; (3) produce no-cost, high-quality, trauma-informed, recovery-oriented, and equity-centered training that addresses core peer support competencies for crisis response services and settings; and (4) promote and deliver the peer-delivered, evidence-based practice of Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP) to consumers in criminal justice-adjacent diversion and reentry support programs.

Peer Voice North Carolina (PVNC): Advancing Leadership Building upon the first Statewide Consumer Network grant that Promise Resource Network (PRN) received in 2019, PRN will enhance PVNC to expand, embed, and sustain Peer leadership to influence policy and system change. This will be achieved with the creation of a Recovery-focused, Peer-oriented training & technical assistance center with a repository of materials to build skills and leadership for the Peer workforce and Peer-run organizations. North Carolina's Peer Workforce Demographics: NC has a large peer workforce since Medicaid and State funding for Peer Support began in 2006. The current workforce total is 4,012 Certified Peer Support Specialists. Demographic Area: Data (Source: 2022 NCCPSS Data peer demographics) Gender: 1,428 Male, 2,584 Female Primary Diagnostic Category: 1,184 mental health, 1,467 substance use disorder, 735 co-occurring. Education: 353 GED, 658 H.S. Diploma, 523 Associates, 1200 some college, 861 Bachelor's, 379 Master's, 28 PhD. Employment Status: 1,636 employed as CPSS, 822 seeking employment, 107 volunteer, 387 students, 785 employed in other field, 495 employed in related field. Veteran Status: 314 male, 119 female. Strategies/interventions: PVNC has incubated and established innovative peer and recovery practices and will continue adding to a repository of peer focused continuing education and provider trainings inclusive of peer-related practices such as Emotional CPR (ECPR), Intentional Peer Support, Alternatives to Suicide, When the Conversation Turns to Suicide, Hearing Voices Network, psychiatric advance directives (PADs), trauma-informed care, shared decision making, and psychiatric rehabilitation (PsyR). Project Goals and Measurable Objectives: PVNC: Advancing Leadership project goals and objectives center around tow identified needs: (1) Strategic and Unified PSS Training Certification, and Workforce Standards, and (2) Enhanced Infrastructure. These needs will be addressed by achieving the following goals: -Enhancing consumer participation across the state as evidenced by independent NC mental health peer-run organization achieving 501 (C) (3) status by September 2025. -Increasing access to evidence-based & promising MH peer-delivered practices as evidenced by the establishment of the Peer and Recovery Technical Assistance Centers. -Enhancing knowledge, skills & abilities related to recovery & peer support, and peer engagement/empowerment as evidenced by the development of the Peer & Recovery Training & Technical Assistance Center. -Increasing consumer leadership in organizations through collaboration with stakeholders as evidenced by at least 50 peers completing the established leadership & organizational development training opportunities. -Training a minimum of 100 people in peer-led and peer-focused leadership, workforce, and organizational development to build capacity & sustainability of statewide consumer networks as evidenced by annual total number of trainees. -Completing a minimum of 2 activities/TTA opportunities annually per coalition as evidenced by training rosters, event data, white papers, etc.

The Transformation Center DBA Kiva Centers has established the MA Statewide Peer Network, a large network of people with lived experience of mental health, trauma, and/or substance use recovery, alongside other stakeholders to meet the goals of the Federal funding initiative for a Statewide Consumer Network program through the Department of Health and Human Services and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, (SAMHSA). The network is comprised of several groups dedicated to building and strengthening the peer support workforce and community related to increasing awareness and training of mental health, trauma, and/or substance use recovery in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—especially in underserved and underrepresented communities and groups. The network has evolved through the expansion and diversification of all lived-experience professionals, including activists and people with lived experience, Certified Peer Specialists, Young Adult Peer Mentors, Peer Recovery Coaches, Community Health Workers, Older Adult Peer Specialists, and Family Partners. The goals of the MA Statewide Peer Network are to: -Build capacity and infrastructure of the statewide peer network to cultivate the mission as a peer-run organization and ensure effective governance and management of the organization by people with lived experience -Enhance the voices of people with lived experience, empower, and enable participation in behavioral health policy, planning, and implementation across the state -Increase community involvement and leadership in workforce and program development to enhance access to and availability of evidence-based and promising practices that are holistic, peer-driven, and trauma-informed -Engage people with lived experiences (including those from underserved and underrepresented populations) via training, awareness, outreach, and support; -Emphasize and build leadership within peer-run organizations and in communities across the state and through partnerships and collaboration with allied stakeholders -Address the needs of underserved and under-represented communities and individuals to be inclusive of people from all backgrounds. Outreach and accessibility to individuals who identify as part of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA communities, people with disabilities, involvement with the criminal justice system, unhoused individuals, and all marginalized individuals in our Commonwealth. Intensive outreach to rural communities with limited access to programming and transportation.

OhioPRO (Peer Recovery Organizations) seeks funding through the Statewide Consumer Network opportunity to enhance statewide mental health consumer-run organizations to promote mental health and related service system capacity and infrastructure development to be consumer-centered and targeted toward recovery and resiliency. OhioPRO's statewide network includes 40 PROs and 9 Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs). Populations Served: OhioPRO's SCN Project seeks to address the needs of underserved and under-represented consumers, including those from ethnic, racial, or cultural minority groups; sexual orientation and gender minority individuals; those with histories of chronic homelessness or involvement with the criminal justice system; and those with mental health and co-occurring disorders (COD). PROs and RCOs are in 37 of Ohio's 88 counties . There are no PROs or RCOs on Ohio's eastern border with Pennsylvania and the northern panhandle of West Virginia, none in the NW corner of Ohio, and large clusters of counties central and southwest Ohio and central northern Ohio. Thus, the geographic catchment area includes all 88 counties in Ohio to ensure that consumer-operated system reaches persons in need. OhioPRO will work with its Key Partners to establish learning collaborative hubs in five regions across the state to ensure that the reach of the project is expansive. Goals: There are six goals for this project: (1): Enhance consumer participation, voice, leadership, and empowerment statewide to effect systems change and improve the quality of mental health services. (2): Facilitate access to evidence-based and promising mental health peer-delivered practices. (3): Enhance knowledge, skills, and abilities within mental health service and/or mental health peer support providers across the state related to recovery and peer support, and peer engagement/empowerment. (4): Emphasize and build consumer leadership within consumer-run organizations and in communities across the state, as well as through partnerships and collaboration with allied stakeholders. Goal (5): Build capacity and sustainability of statewide consumer networks. Goal (6): Promote activities related to fostering leadership and management skills with mental health peers and peer-run organizations; engaging consumers via training, awareness, outreach and support; strengthening organizational relationships with state, regional, and local government entities and community stakeholders; and identifying and implementing technical assistance to promote mental health peer involvement, peer support and mental health peer leadership within organizations, communities, and at the state level.