Recovery Support Specialists Recruitment

Dear Friend,

I’m writing to ask for your help in recruiting people in long term recovery from mental illness or substance abuse (peers) who might be interested in working as Recovery Support Specialists (RSS) in behavioral health agencies.  South Central Peer Services, a division of Continuum of Care, is the largest trainer and employer of peers in Connecticut.  We have received requests for additional peers and we are looking for people interested in giving back to others who are just starting on their recovery journey.

We have learned over the years that not everyone in recovery will do well in a Recovery Support role.  A number of our peers work in scattered site residential programs.  They visit people who may still be actively using or not receiving treatment and try to develop a relationship of trust that will allow them to introduce recovery ideas into their conversations.  This is hard and frustrating work and can put a strain on the peer’s own recovery.  Others do similar work with people in crisis programs or who have recently been released from prison.  As you can imagine, we are looking for applicants who are dedicated to helping others and are strong enough in their own recovery to be able to do so.  We don’t like to disappoint people, so please send us candidates you think can learn to do the difficult work we expect of our peers.

If we think applicants have what it takes, we place them in our Intern Program.  They meet with us every two weeks to receive training and talk over issues with other interns and working RSS.   We pay expenses for those meetings.  If we are not sure that a person is ready for a job, we can arrange an unpaid internship in an agency.   If an intern has not already graduated as a certified peer from the Recovery University of Advocacy Unlimited, we arrange for that person to enroll, since almost all peer jobs require this certification.  When we and the peer think he or she is ready to apply for an RSS position, we send the peer out for interviews at interested agencies.  We continue to supervise our peers when they are on the job.  All this means that it may take a while for a person to get an actual paying job.

Most of our peer jobs are 15-20 hours a week and pay $11.50 per hour.  A few peers are working two positions and are therefore entitled to benefits, including health insurance and paid time off. 

Attached is our internship application.  Please feel free to print it and give it to anyone you think would make a good peer.  The application requires a reference from someone who knows that peer and can comment on that person’s readiness for peer work.  If you are filling out the reference, please fax it to 203 498-4165.

Thank you for reading through this complicated email and for sending us people you think have what we need.   Thanks again. Ed

Edward Mattison

Director

South Central Peer Services

A division of Continuum of Care

1435 State St.

New Haven, CT 06511

P 203 498-4160

F 203 498-4165

WWW. SCBHN.ORG

Internship Application Link:  https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7mVvcTz_jvDSTNaal9uc21LMzA/edit?usp=sharing