Peer Advocate Pilot Project Offers Support, Opportunity to Give Back
At its core, Lamp Community is not only about ending homelessness for men and women living with mental illness; it’s also about providing supportive services that improve their lives and their health, and empower them. A dedicated team of advocates, therapists, specialists and health care providers helps realize this goal. And now, thanks to the work of Lamp Village Mental Health Peer Advocate Monica Potts, Lamp members will be able to join that team as peer advocates.
Potts is leading a new Peer Advocate Pilot Project, which will expand the current support system and bring Lamp members into the process. Fifteen peer supporters will begin training on Oct. 3 with managers and staff — focusing on listening, conflict resolution, identifying symptoms and acquiring the tools to necessary to help others and to grow as well. Ultimately, Monica hopes to enroll at least 30 members as advocates.
The goal of the pilot program is to help members — whether they’re giving or receiving extra support. Members get an extra person in their corner — someone who understands from experience what they’ve been through. The peer advocates in training, in turn, have an opportunity to give back to others, to keep building upon their own self-sufficiency and self-esteem, and to continue building the community at Lamp.
“[This is] a tool that can help someone experience a life-changing result, and can create wellness and growth,” Potts says. “Dedication to putting action [behind] the tools is one of the most empowering things that a peer can do.”
Peer support makes the recovery process more effective, Potts says, because it creates hope, and shows that results come not from words but through actions.
“The more support the better,” she says. “Most of us feel that we are not worthy of getting better, so we stay bonded to stigmas and we never get better. But when we have a support system, we learn that there are others living normal lives, and for us this makes all the difference.”
A Peer Advocate for six years, Potts was drawn to the work after sponsoring others. She has been sober for seven years, and she finds that the work helps with her own recovery. As an advocate, she has been able to focus on systemic advocacy: identifying issues, gaps, and opportunities to improve services in mental health and homelessness, and participating in valuable services that provide care, support and assistance in creating better quality of life.
“I have lived with mental illness for years,” Potts says. “I lived on the streets, and lived at one time with a dual diagnosis. I know the challenges, the issues and the stigma related to mental illness. I have been the recipient of much care and support … and I know the potential of individuals like myself who live with this illness, to achieve wellness.”
What makes a good peer advocate? Peers who can validate someone else’s painful experiences while expressing belief in a person’s ability to be resilient and move forward, she says. Good advocates have a passion for helping others, and are dedicated to recovery in whatever form it may take. Under Potts’ instruction, Lamp is eager to watch the Peer Advocate Pilot Project succeed.
