Peer Support Specialist

Become a Part of Something Big!

Our mission at the Keys to Change campus is to create a safe, engaging, holistic community

that empowers people to end their homelessness and create positive, long-term changes.

We offer a dynamic work environment where your ideas and critical thinking skills will be valued

and your contributions will directly influence the lives of those in need.

We are looking for individuals who are ready to be part of something bigger than themselves,

who want to challenge the status quo.

At Keys to Change, your work will matter, your voice will be heard, and together,

we will transform lives and strengthen communities

Keys to Change is an Equal Opportunity Employer and offers an attractive health and benefits package for our employees, including 100% towards monthly premiums for Health, Dental, Long- and Short-Term Disability, and Life insurance (employee only), Paid Time Off, 403b, 8 Paid Holidays, and flexible schedule.

The Peer Support Specialist in the Re-Entry Program is the trusted guide, mentor, and credible messenger of the program. Drawing on lived experience with incarceration, homelessness, and/or recovery, the Peer Support Specialist provides emotional support, models resilience, and helps participants build the confidence and accountability needed to succeed in reentry.

This role bridges the gap between participants and formal systems, ensuring clients feel seen, heard, and supported as they navigate housing, legal barriers, and recovery.

Keys to Change fosters a mission-driven, equity-centered, and collaborative work environment where team members are encouraged to lead with purpose, think systemically, and bring both professional expertise and lived experience to the table. We embrace adaptive leadership, continuous learning, and collective responsibility in our shared pursuit to end homelessness.

Essential Functions

Peer Mentorship & Relationship Building

• Build authentic, trusting relationships with participants, grounded in shared experience.
• Provide consistent check-ins, encouragement, and accountability.
• Help clients set realistic goals for housing, employment, and recovery.
• Accompany participants to key appointments or court appearances as a supportive presence.
  
  
  

Group Facilitation & Healing Support

• Co-facilitate weekly peer support circles and group sessions focused on recovery, resilience, and reentry.
• Create safe spaces where participants can share challenges, celebrate wins, and build community.
• Model healthy boundaries and coping skills.
  
  
  

Systems Navigation Support

• Work alongside Re-Entry Navigators and Legal Support Coordinator to help clients’ complete steps in their plans.
• Help clients understand expectations and processes in housing, employment, or legal systems.
• Act as a translator and bridge between clients and staff when communication gaps arise.
  
  
  

Recovery & Harm Reduction

• Provide harm reduction-informed support to participants navigating substance use or relapse.
• Normalize recovery as a process and offer judgment-free encouragement.
• Connect participants to treatment, peer-led recovery groups, and wellness resources.
  
  
  

Qualifications

Required:

• Personal lived experience with incarceration, homelessness, and/or substance use recovery.
• Peer Support Specialist certification (or willingness to obtain within 6 months of hire).
• Strong interpersonal skills, compassion, and ability to build trust.
• Commitment to Housing First, Anti-Racism, and Harm Reduction principles.
  
  
  

Preferred:

• Experience facilitating peer groups or recovery circles.
• Familiarity with Arizona’s reentry, recovery, and housing resources.
• Bilingual (English/Spanish).
  
  
  

Core Values & Approach

• Housing First – housing is foundational, not conditional.
• Anti-Racism – confront racial inequities within the legal and housing systems.
• Harm Reduction – meet people where they are, without judgment.
• Both/And Advocate – act as a service provider and a systems-change partner simultaneously.
  
  
  

Working Conditions

• Community-based with flexibility to meet clients where they are (campus, shelters, jails, encampments).
• Part Time M–F hours with some flexibility to support evening group circles if needed.
• Works as part of a collaborative team: Navigators, Legal Support Coordinator, and Lived Experience Fellow.
• Supported by the full resources of Keys to Change.
  
  
  

This role is based at the Key Campus, which has been the epicenter of unsheltered homelessness in Maricopa County. The work environment is dynamic, challenging, and emotionally intense. Staff operate in proximity to human suffering, community tension, and systemic failure, and also in the midst of profound resilience, daily breakthroughs, and opportunities for radical impact.

Team members must be prepared to lead with compassion, clarity, and courage in an environment that is not always comfortable or predictable. The work is fast-paced, deeply relational, and requires physical presence across the campus. Keys to Change supports staff with a culture of care, adaptive leadership, and commitment to racial equity, healing, and justice, but this is not a remote, detached, or traditional nonprofit setting. It is frontline systems work at the intersection of policy, poverty, and possibility.