Project Restart and Grace Street announced this week a free peer recovery support specialist certification program starting soon in Easton.
Certified Peer Recovery Specialists are people with lived experience in recovery from substance use disorder and/or mental illness, who receive credentials that standardize work in recovery support environments. This credential is governed by the Maryland Behavioral-health Professional Certification Board. Certification includes 46 hours of documented courses, along with 500 service hours and 25 supervision hours.
Grace Street, a new recovery community organization in Easton, is offering the full certification program for eight people in this first cohort. Project Restart, a program of Not My Child, a non-profit dedicated to helping people affected by the opioid crisis through channels of education, awareness, burial costs, memorials, and/or co-pays for treatment, is sponsoring the cost of training. Project Restart focuses on job supports by linking potential employees and employers.
“The goal of Not My Child and our Project Restart program is to eliminate the heartbreak surrounding the opioid crisis and aid in creating success stories and fulfilling futures instead,” said Laura Reno, Executive Director of Not My Child. “We are thrilled for this opportunity to partner with Grace Street to fund the peer recovery support specialist certification program training to qualified individuals. Not only is this program a rewarding career path that helps with healing, it is also a much needed profession that is highly in demand. We look forward to supporting and encouraging the individuals that are selected for this program.”
The first cohort includes two weeks of instruction, Monday through Friday during the day, on site at Grace Street. Participants must have six months of recovery from a substance use disorder, a GED or equivalent, and submit two letters of recommendation. Anyone interested should contact Kelley Callaghan at [email protected].
Grace Street is the area’s first recovery community organization (RCO). RCOs are a nationally recognized model that help bridge the gap between professional treatment and a successful life in long-term recovery through enhanced supports and services. Chesapeake Charities received a one-year grant from Maryland’s Opioid Operational Command Center to establish the Grace Street RCO.
Easton’s center delivers an assortment of non-clinical, community-centered, peer recovery support services and care coordination, along with harm reduction resources including the region’s first Narcan vending machine; workforce training and development; youth programming; overdose prevention activities and resources; and support groups. The center helps people establish healthy lifestyles and reacclimate into society, while building recovery capital and working to reduce stigma often associated with addiction.
Grace Street serves people in Easton and Talbot County, and in neighboring counties across the Mid-Shore. Referrals are not necessary and services are free. The center is open weekdays, 4 – 9 pm. and weekends 2 – 7 p.m. Daytime hours vary. Anyone interested in volunteering, partnering or supporting this project can contact Kate Dulin, program director, at 410-690-7353 or visit GraceStreetRecovery.org.
This project is supported by the Opioid Operational Command Center. The views presented here are those of the grantee organization and not necessarily those of the OOCC, its Executive Director, or its staff.
Located in Stevensville, Chesapeake Charities is a community foundation that supports more than 135 nonprofit funds that impact a range of charitable causes including animal welfare, arts, education, health and human services, and the environment. To date they have generated more than $32 million in investment and grant funding for charitable projects in ten counties: Anne Arundel, Calvert, Caroline, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s and Talbot. For more information, contact Chesapeake Charities at (410) 643-4020 or [email protected], or visit www.chesapeakecharities.org. Chesapeake Charities is accredited by the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations.
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