Training - Intentional Peer Support Core (5-day In-Person - 10/7 through 10/11/24, Burlington, VT)
2024-10-08 09:00 - 16:30, 2024-10-07 09:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York)
Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. Practitioners learn to use relationships to see things from new angles, develop greater awareness of personal and relational patterns, and support and challenge each other in trying new things.
Based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach, our in-person Core Training is a 5-day introduction to this innovative framework and is designed to have you practicing right away. In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the tasks and principles of IPS, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create relationships in which power is negotiated, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of “service.” IPS is all about opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and here we examine how to make this possible.
Please review this document in its entirety before registering. Registration for this training indicates agreement to participate, as noted in the document.
Schedule:
Monday, October 7th through Friday, October 11th, 9:00am-4:30pm. Participants must attend all days. We will take an hour lunch and two short breaks each day.
Venue to be announced closer to training date.
Cost:
This training is generously sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative. There is only a $100 fee per participant for IPS Core Materials (a book). You will receive your book the first day of the training.
Location:
This training will be in Burlington, VT. Venue to be announced closer to training date.
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Training - Intentional Peer Support Overview Training (4-hour)
2024-10-03 10:00 - 14:00, 2024-09-27 10:00 - 14:00
“As peer support in mental health proliferates, we must be mindful of our intention: social change. It is not about developing more effective services, but rather about creating dialogues that have influence on all of our understandings, conversations, and relationships.” – Shery Mead, Founder of IPS
Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. It provides a powerful framework for creating relationships where both people learn and grow together. IPS is used across the world in community, peer support, and human services settings, and is a tool for community development with broad appeal to people from all walks of life.
Why IPS? Peers come together around shared experiences and often a desire to change lives. But without a new framework to build upon, people frequently re-enact “help” based on what was done to them. IPS offers a foundation for doing something different. We come from a history of grassroots alternatives that focus on building relationships that are mutual, explorative, and conscious of power.
In this 4-hour online overview, participants will learn about the history of IPS as well as the tasks and principles of this transformational framework. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and have interactive discussions with the facilitators and other participants.
Please log in from a quiet, undisturbed location for this event as there are interactive sessions with discussions, not webinars.
This training is for people who work and/or live in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and generously sponsored by the Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Training - Harm Reduction: Autonomy, Choice, & Self-Determination
2024-09-24 10:00 - 14:00
Autonomy, Choice, & Self-Determination: Harm Reduction
In this interactive workshop, participants will gain insight into applying harm reduction principles when supporting folks having a variety of experiences. Together we’ll explore how to meet folks where they are and practice a person-centered, empathetic, and nonjudgmental approach to harm and risk reduction. Participants will investigate the utilization of risky or harmful behaviors as survival tools for managing pain, trauma, and emotional distress; practice engaging in conversations about the pain and trauma that lead to risky or harmful behaviors; and explore harm reduction as an embodiment of social justice.
This training will be held virtually via zoom. We recommend that folks join via laptop, desktop, or tablet as smart phones are harder to navigate for this kind of interactive training.
This training is for folks who live and/or work in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Training - A Harm Reduction Approach to Psychiatric Drugs (Vermont Only)
2024-09-23 12:30 - 16:30
Training schedule: Monday 9/23/24 and Wednesday 9/25/24 , 1230-430pm each day (this is a two-day workshop)
As peer support workers, we are sometimes discouraged from having conversations about psych drugs. We are encouraged to leave it to the medical professionals. While we cannot give medical advice or replace the role of doctors, we can offer supportive conversations that explore others’—and our own—relationship to psych drugs. We might also be in a position to advocate with prescribers, friends, and family members to support someone’s self-determination.
This two-day participatory workshop introduces a model for thinking about psych drugs as neither good nor bad, but as chemicals that can have benefits and also come with risks. A harm reduction approach meets people where they’re at without judgment, supports flexibility, and honors neurodiversity. Through sharing personal stories and opening up dialogue, we can educate and support each other to make more informed choices with less harm.
This training will be held virtually via zoom. We recommend that folks join via laptop, desktop, or tablet as smart phones are harder to navigate for this kind of interactive training.
This training is for folks who live and/or work in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Facilitators: Calvin Moen (he/him) and J Helms (they/them)
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Training - Relationship-First Approach to Extreme States
2024-09-20 10:00 - 12:00
In this interactive workshop, participants will gain insight into and practice an approach that centers personal connection, empathy, and mutuality when supporting people who experience extreme or unusual states and/or have extraordinary beliefs. Participants will explore ways to negotiate boundaries and disparate needs while maintaining values of choice, transparency, equality, community, and possibility. Topics include navigating fear and discomfort, avoiding/minimizing control and coercion, and navigating multiple truths when supporting people having experiences that might be labeled as psychosis.
This training will be held virtually via zoom. We recommend that folks join via laptop, desktop, or tablet as smart phones are harder to navigate for this kind of interactive training.
This training is for folks who live and/or work in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Training - Disrupting the Institutional Circuit
2024-08-29 13:00 - 15:00
In this interactive virtual workshop, participants will learn about how Pathways Vermont utilized Housing First values to build a synergetic partnership with the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC). Through this ever-evolving partnership, Pathways supports people leaving incarceration to reacclimate to independent living and reintegrate into their communities, including building – and sometimes reconnecting with – natural supports. We’ll discuss common challenges people face when leaving incarceration and reintegrating into the community, including the impact of institutionalization on mental health and the importance of balancing personal autonomy with accountability to one’s community.
If the cost of the ticket is inaccessible to you, please reach out to training@pathwaysvermont.org to explore possibilities for discounted tickets.

Training - Intentional Peer Support Core (Virtual)
2024-08-20 12:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. Practitioners learn to use relationships to see things from new angles, develop greater awareness of personal and relational patterns, and support and challenge each other in trying new things.
Based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach, our virtual Core Training is a 10-day introduction to this innovative framework and is designed to have you practicing right away. In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the tasks and principles of IPS, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create relationships in which power is negotiated, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of “service.” IPS is all about opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and here we examine how to make this possible.
This is a virtual training and we’ll be using Zoom as the platform. You’ll receive the joining information via email prior to the training.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays for 10 days: 8/20, 8/21, 8/27, 8/28, 9/3, 9/4, 9/10, 9/11, 9/17, and 9/18
12:00 – 4:00pm each day (with short breaks)

Facilitators:
J Helms (they/them), Vermont Statewide IPS Trainer
Alexander Ferguson (he/him), Vermont Statewide IPS Trainer
Amey Dettmer (she/her) , Vermont Statewide IPS Trainer
Cost:
This training is generously sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative – there is only a $120 fee per participant, which includes the cost for IPS Core Materials (a book). Please include an address for shipping when you register.

Training - Conversations About Privilege & Oppression (Sold Out)
2024-08-13 10:00 - 14:00
As peer support workers, we are sometimes faced with difficult conversations around oppression and privilege. We may encounter a service recipient who expresses racist or misogynistic worldviews. A co-worker may make a homophobic or transphobic remark. We may encounter sanist and ableist ideologies within the mental health system. We may even face our own implicit biases.
This participatory workshop is intended to support ourselves, fellow staff, and service recipients to engage in conversations about oppression and privilege. We’ll spend time unpacking oppression, privilege, and bias, then consider why, when, and how to respond. Through sharing personal stories, opening up dialogue, and practicing difficult conversations, we will educate and support each other to engage in conversations consistent with anti-bias values.
This training will be held virtually via zoom. We recommend that folks join via laptop, desktop, or tablet as smart phones are harder to navigate for this kind of interactive training.
This training is for folks who live and/or work in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Mad Movement Histories (Vermont Only)
2024-06-13 12:30 - 16:30, 2024-06-11 12:30 - 16:30
DATES: Tues 6/11 and Thurs 6/13, 1230pm-430pm each day (*this is a two-day event*)
DESCRIPTION: Come explore mad* movement histories through themes of resistance to oppression and building alternative supports, and through lenses of racial, disability, economic, and gender justice. We will look at and discuss some primary sources, and there will be short assignments in advance of our sessions.
* including ex-patients, psychiatric survivors, psychiatrically labeled/disabled, neurodivergent, experiencing extreme states, marginalized by sanism, and many more self-described identities
Please note: Training participants will be asked to watch an hourlong documentary (free on YouTube) outside of training.
This training is for people who work and/or live in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and generously sponsored by the Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Facilitators: Calvin Moen (he/him) and J Helms (they/them)
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Intentional Peer Support Core (In-Person - Burlington, VT)
2024-06-03 09:00 - 2024-06-07 16:30
Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. Practitioners learn to use relationships to see things from new angles, develop greater awareness of personal and relational patterns, and support and challenge each other in trying new things.
Based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach, our in-person Core Training is a 5-day introduction to this innovative framework and is designed to have you practicing right away. In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the tasks and principles of IPS, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create relationships in which power is negotiated, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of “service.” IPS is all about opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and here we examine how to make this possible.

Intentional Peer Support Overview Training (4-hour)
2024-05-22 10:00 - 14:00

A Harm Reduction Approach to Psychiatric Drugs (2-day training)
2024-05-21 12:30 - 2024-05-23 16:30
As peer support workers, we are sometimes discouraged from having conversations about psych drugs and are encouraged to leave it to the medical professionals. While we cannot give medical advice or replace the role of doctors, we can offer supportive conversations that explore others’—and our own—relationship to psych drugs. We might also be in a position to advocate with prescribers, friends, and family members to support someone’s self-determination.
This two-day participatory workshop introduces a model for thinking about psych drugs as neither good nor bad, but as chemicals that can have benefits and also come with risks. A harm reduction approach meets people where they’re at without judgment, supports flexibility, and honors neurodiversity. Through sharing personal stories and opening up dialogue, we can educate and support each other to make more informed choices with less harm.
This training will be held virtually via zoom. We recommend that folks join via laptop, desktop, or tablet as smart phones are harder to navigate for this kind of interactive training.
This training is free of charge to participants and sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Facilitators: Calvin Moen (he/him) and J Helms (they/them)

A Harm Reduction Approach to Psychiatric Drugs (Vermont Only)
2024-05-21 12:30 - 16:30
Training schedule: Tues 5/21 and Thurs 5/23 , 1230-430pm each day (this is a two-day workshop)
As peer support workers, we are sometimes discouraged from having conversations about psych drugs and are encouraged to leave it to the medical professionals. While we cannot give medical advice or replace the role of doctors, we can offer supportive conversations that explore others’—and our own—relationship to psych drugs. We might also be in a position to advocate with prescribers, friends, and family members to support someone’s self-determination.
This two-day participatory workshop introduces a model for thinking about psych drugs as neither good nor bad, but as chemicals that can have benefits and also come with risks. A harm reduction approach meets people where they’re at without judgment, supports flexibility, and honors neurodiversity. Through sharing personal stories and opening up dialogue, we can educate and support each other to make more informed choices with less harm.
This training will be held virtually via zoom. We recommend that folks join via laptop, desktop, or tablet as smart phones are harder to navigate for this kind of interactive training.
This training is for folks who live and/or work in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Facilitators: Calvin Moen (he/him) and J Helms (they/them)
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Pathways Vermont's Relationship-First Practice
2024-05-16 13:00 - 15:00
In this interactive workshop, participants will explore ways to tolerate and embrace discomfort in their relationships with service recipients while learning about the values of Pathways Vermont’s Relationship-First Practice: humanity, authenticity, collaboration, humility, curiosity, and hope. Through this practice, service providers vulnerably embrace and investigate their discomfort, deepen their practice of empathy, and build powerful, meaningful connections.
This training is for folks who live and/or work in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Intentional Peer Support Virtual Overview (90 minutes)
2024-05-08 10:00 - 11:30
“As peer support in mental health proliferates, we must be mindful of our intention: social change. It is not about developing more effective services, but rather about creating dialogues that have influence on all of our understandings, conversations, and relationships.” – Shery Mead, Founder of IPS
Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. It provides a powerful framework for creating relationships where both people learn and grow together. IPS is used across the world in community, peer support, and human services settings, and is a tool for community development with broad appeal to people from all walks of life.
Why IPS? Peers come together around shared experiences and often a desire to change lives. But without a new framework to build upon, people frequently re-enact “help” based on what was done to them. IPS offers a foundation for doing something different. We come from a history of grassroots alternatives that focus on building relationships that are mutual, explorative, and conscious of power.
In this 90-minute online overview, participants will learn about the history of IPS as well as the tasks and principles of this transformational framework. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and have interactive discussions with the facilitators and other participants.
Please log in from a quiet, undisturbed location for this event as there are interactive sessions with discussions, not webinars.
This training is for people who work and/or live in Vermont. This training is free of charge to participants and generously sponsored by the Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
Contact peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org with any questions.

Relationship-First Approach to Extreme States
2024-05-07 10:00 - 12:00

Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Peer Statewide Co-Reflections
2022-09-07 15:00 - 16:00
This virtual co-reflection is a space for people to come together to reflect on the development of peer support relationships. This co-reflection space is for BIPOC individuals that identify as peers & or work in mental health & human services in Vermont.
When: First and third Wednesday of each month at 3:00pm EST
To register in advance for this meeting, click here (registration required).
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please email training@pathwaysvermont.org with any comments or questions.

Vermont Intentional Peer Support (IPS) Online Co-Reflections
2022-09-06 14:00 - 15:00, 2022-08-02 14:00 - 15:00
First and Third Tuesdays of every month 2:00pm – 3:00pm EST
IPS is a way of thinking about and being in purposeful relationships. Co-reflection is a process that we can use to help each other reflect on our practice (how we’re doing what we say we want to be doing). Statewide IPS online co-reflections are facilitated through Zoom. Please click here to register and receive call in information!

Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Peer Statewide Co-Reflections
2022-08-03 15:00 - 16:00
Description: This virtual co-reflection is a space for people to come together to reflect on the development of peer support relationships. This co-reflection space is for BIPOC individuals that identify as peers & or work in mental health & human services in Vermont.
When: First and third Wednesday of each month at 3:00pm EST
To register in advance for this meeting, click here (registration required).
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please email training@pathwaysvermont.org with any comments or questions.

Intentional Peer Support (IPS) Overview Training (virtual)
2022-03-15 12:30 - 16:30
Dates: March 15th and 22nd
Time: 12:30pm – 4:30pm EST
Description: The IPS Overview Training will provide an 8 hour introduction to the innovative IPS framework based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach. The IPS Overview Training is for anyone interested in learning more about the IPS approach, which has been widely used as a foundation training for people working in both traditional and alternative mental health settings. The group will learn about the three principles and four tasks of IPS, and briefly experience it in action.
To register, CLICK HERE!

Statewide Virtual Intentional Peer Support Core Training (As of 1.20.22 No Spots Available)
2022-02-02 12:30 - 16:30
Wednesdays and Thursdays for ten half days : 2/2, 2/3, 2/9, 2/10, 2/16, 2/17, 2/23, 2/24, 3/2, and 3/3, 12:30pm – 4:30pm EST each day. This Training is full.
Description: From the IPS Website “Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. Practitioners learn to use relationships to see things from new angles, develop greater awareness of personal and relational patterns, and support and challenge each other in trying new things.
Based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach, our Core Training is a 5-day total introduction to this innovative framework and is designed to have you practicing right away. In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the tasks and principles of IPS, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create relationships in which power is negotiated, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of “service.” IPS is all about opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and here we examine how to make this possible.
This training is generously sponsored by the Peer Workforce Development Initiative–there is only a $100 fee per participant for IPS Core Materials.

Sharing Your Wellness Recovery Story, Storytelling Training (virtual)
2021-11-09 11:30 - 14:30
Dates: Tuesday, 11/9 and Wednesday, 11/10
Time: 11:30pm-2:30pm EST (each session)
Description: This course is about stories – sharing stories to inspire, inform and motivate others toward hope and action. Your life journey is a gift and how you share that gift through story can make a difference. Although this training primarily focuses on learning techniques and story development for a Peer Empowered Presentation (PEP), it offers easily transferable skills for a variety of storytelling opportunities. Learning Objectives:
1. Examine the benefits of personal stories for both the listener and the teller.
2. Explore key messages within stories to promote wellness and recovery for individuals and systems.
3. Practice skills in developing and sharing personal stories of life experiences.
The training is free of charge to participants and sponsored by Vermont’s Peer Workforce Development Initiative.
To register, CLICK HERE!

Statewide Virtual Intentional Peer Support Core Training (virtual)
2021-11-01 09:00 - 17:00
Dates: November 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm EST (each day)
Location: Burlington Venue TBD
Description: From the IPS Website “Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. Practitioners learn to use relationships to see things from new angles, develop greater awareness of personal and relational patterns, and support and challenge each other in trying new things.
Based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach, our Core Training is a 5-day introduction to this innovative framework and is designed to have you practicing right away. In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the tasks and principles of IPS, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create relationships in which power is negotiated, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of “service.” IPS is all about opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and here we examine how to make this possible.
This training is generously sponsored by the Peer Workforce Development Initiative–there is only a $100 fee per participant for IPS Core Materials.
To register, CLICK HERE!

Conversations About Suicide (virtual)
2021-10-26 12:00 - 16:30
Dates: October 26th
Time: 9:00am -5:00pm EST
Description: As peer support workers, we will sometimes support folks who are thinking of dying by suicide. This participatory workshop is intended to support ourselves, fellow staff, and service recipients to engage in conversations about suicide in ways that prioritize compassion, empathy, and autonomy. We’ll spend time unpacking suicide as a language of pain, then consider why, when, and how to respond to folks who are thinking about dying. Through sharing personal stories, opening up dialogue, and practicing difficult conversations, we will educate and support each other to remain curious, lean into discomfort, and center mutuality.
To register, CLICK HERE!

Statewide Intentional Peer Support Core Training (virtual)
2021-09-20 12:00 - 16:30
Dates: September 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 & September 27, 28, 29, 30, October 1 2021
Time:12:30pm-4:30pm EST
Description: From the IPS Website “Intentional Peer Support is a way of thinking about and inviting transformative relationships. Practitioners learn to use relationships to see things from new angles, develop greater awareness of personal and relational patterns, and support and challenge each other in trying new things.
Based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach, our Core Training is a 5-day introduction to this innovative framework and is designed to have you practicing right away. In a highly interactive environment, participants learn the tasks and principles of IPS, examine assumptions about who they are, and explore ways to create relationships in which power is negotiated, co-learning is possible, and support goes beyond traditional notions of “service.” IPS is all about opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing, and here we examine how to make this possible.
This training is generously sponsored by the Peer Workforce Development Initiative–there is only a $100 fee per participant for IPS Core Materials.
To register, CLICK HERE!

Intentional Peer Support (IPS) Overview Training
2021-07-20 13:00 - 17:00
July 20th and 22nd 1:00pm – 5:00pm (each session)
Intentional Peer Support (IPS) Overview Training
The IPS Overview Training will provide an 8 hour introduction to the innovative IPS framework based on Shery Mead’s book, Intentional Peer Support: An Alternative Approach. The IPS Overview Training is for anyone interested in learning more about the IPS approach, which has been widely used as a foundation training for people working in both traditional and alternative mental health settings. The group will learn about the three principles and four tasks of IPS, and briefly experience it in action.
