Family Peer Support Specialist – Job Description

Position Summary

The Peer Support Specialist uses their lived experience with mental health challenges, substance use recovery, or other life-disrupting experiences to provide support, encouragement, and advocacy for individuals working toward their own recovery. This role focuses on building trusting relationships, modeling hope, and helping peers access resources that empower them to improve their well‑being and achieve personal goals.

Key Responsibilities

Peer Support & Engagement

• Build supportive, respectful, and trusting relationships with individuals receiving services.
• Use personal lived experience to promote hope, resilience, and self-determination.
• Provide one-on-one peer mentoring, emotional support, and skill-building.
• Facilitate or co-facilitate peer-led groups, workshops, or recovery circles.
• Support peers during crisis or stressful situations using de‑escalation and empowerment-focused strategies.

Advocacy & Resource Navigation

• Assist individuals in identifying and navigating community resources (housing, employment, education, healthcare, social services).
• Advocate for individuals’ rights, choices, and access to services.
• Collaborate with clinical teams, case managers, and social service providers while maintaining peer‑centered boundaries.

Education & Skill Building

• Teach and model coping skills, self‑advocacy skills, and wellness strategies.
• Share recovery tools based on lived experience, not clinical instruction.
• Encourage peers to set and work toward personal recovery and life goals.

Documentation & Professionalism

• Maintain accurate and timely documentation following agency standards.
• Participate in team meetings, supervision, and ongoing professional development.
• Uphold ethical guidelines, confidentiality, and trauma‑informed, person‑centered practices.

Qualifications

Required

• Lived experience with recovery from mental health challenges, substance use, trauma, homelessness, or similar experiences.
• Ability to draw on lived experience to support others in a constructive and professional manner.
• Strong communication skills, empathy, and active listening abilities.
• Peer Support Certification (or ability to obtain within required timeframe; requirements vary by state).
• High school diploma or equivalent (often required, depending on employer).

Preferred

• Experience working in behavioral health, social services, or peer support settings.
• Familiarity with recovery models such as WRAP, person‑centered planning, or trauma‑informed care.
• Basic computer and documentation skills.

Core Competencies

• Empathy and nonjudgmental communication
• Boundaries and ethics
• Cultural humility and inclusiveness
• Problem-solving and resourcefulness
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Reliability and professionalism