Essential Job Functions:

• Outreach/Engagement/Bridge Building: Helping to facilitate engagement by forging strong connections
with participants and families residing in Harlem/Bronx and surrounding communities. Undertaking
outreach activities designed to promote community awareness of S:US services, encouraging help-
seeking, and at times serving as a bridge between treatment team members and participants when they
experience ambivalence about substance use treatment (including Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)
and outpatient Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment).

• Combating Overdose: Peer Specialists will be certified to train and distribute Naloxone kits to individuals
and their family members.

• Relationship Building: Developing authentic, meaningful relationships with individuals and families
through empathy, sharing experiences, listening and collaborating with genuine curiosity and interest.

• Embracing Creative Narratives: Peer Specialists need to be able to understand, share and discuss multiple
frameworks for understanding life experiences such as substance use and psychosis with participants and
the rest of the S:US team. Peer Specialists intentionally use language in the service of listening to
understand and making space for complex personal stories of recovery and resilience.

• Advocacy: Peer Specialists advocate with and for program participants both in the larger community and
on the team.

• Co-Creating Support and Wellness Tools: Collaborate with participants to clarify their personal visions
and develop their wellness toolkit. Along with other team members, Peer Specialists support participants
in strengthening their self-awareness, building life skills, and connecting to resources and community
outside of the S:US team.

• Influencing Team Culture: Whenever possible, positively influencing the team culture by advocating for
clients, promoting a youth friendly approach and encouraging the use of recovery oriented language. S:US
Peer Specialists also work actively within the team itself to help build an environment that operates from
a belief in the human potential to grow and an understanding of human diversity.

• Team Communication: Peer Specialists maintain open and frequent communication with the team. This
includes reporting safety and other concerns to the team. Peer Specialists will also keep notes on visits
with program participants as required by the provider agency. In the spirit of peer support, co-
collaborating on reporting with the program participant is encouraged.

Hybrid Schedule Opportunity 

Qualifications:

• Certified Recovery Peer Advocate (or Provisional) Certification required.
• Ideally the Peer Specialist is a young adult or that the candidate relates well to young people
• The Peer Specialist should have an understanding of the community in which the team is based with an
awareness of available community resources
• The Peer Specialist should also be someone who has made positive and productive progress toward his or
her own recovery
• Demonstrate good interpersonal communications skills and the ability to empathize with, relate to and
effectively work with participants of mental health services
• Two years of active participation in substance use/mental health self-help activities, peer support or peer
advocacy programs, or participant run organizations or similar experiences or programs required
• Must possess the ability/ willingness to disclose their recovery story (where appropriate) for the purposes
of empowerment
• Excellent judgment/ability to understand boundaries when working with participants of substance
use/mental health services is required
• Adhere to on call cell phone system to facilitate crisis intervention, emergencies and other situations that
require immediate action.
• Significant travel to engage clients at shelters, in their community and other settings is required; 75%.