Peer Navigator

Job Title: Peer Navigator

Grade: 15

Salary: $ 56,765 - $67,981

The Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene is seeking a qualified candidate to fill a full-time Peer Navigator position. The Peer Navigator is a full time position with the OnTrackNY and Audubon/OnTrackNY Step-Up program. OTNY supports teens and young adults who have been impacted by unexpected changes in their thinking and perceptions. The mission is to empower young people to make meaning of their experiences and to pursue their goals for school, work and relationships. The Audubon/OnTrackNY Step-Up Program is a new program that supports continued recovery for young adults transitioning from OnTrackNY to the Audubon Clinic. Approximately half-time will be spent working at each program. The Peer Navigator will report to the OnTrackNY Team Leader and Step Up Program Director.

The Peer Navigator instills hope by drawing on their own lived experience. Walking alongside participants on their recovery journeys, the Peer Specialist uses a non-clinical approach to support, empower, and advocate for young people as they contend with the difficulties and uncertainties of their emerging experiences. The Peer Navigator uses their unique perspective to contribute to treatment planning, remaining youth-driven and facilitating the team's development and maintenance of a culture of respect and shared decision making. The Peer Navigator collaborates with other team members and provides services to program participants at each clinic or in the community.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Outreach & Engagement: Connecting with the community and participants and families about the program and offering hope and support around the possibility of recovery
• Relationship Building: Forming meaningful partnerships with program participants
• Embracing Creative Narratives: Expanding the understandings of the experience of "First Episode Psychosis"
• Co-Creating Tools for Success: Partnering with participants and families to support development and creation of self-care and self-awareness tools
• Supporting and Partnering with Families: Working closely with a participant's family of choice
• Making OnTrackNY and the Step-Up Program Better: Supporting the growth and development of OnTrackNY and the Step Up Program through creation and support of a feedback loop between participants and the team.
• Bridge Building: Connecting participants and their families to needed community-based support and supporting participants in the transition from OnTrackNY to the Step-Up Program
• Group Facilitation: Creating spaces and opportunities for participants to learn together and support one another
• Community Mapping: Learning about and connecting to community-based supports and resources
• Influencing Team Culture: Utilizing lived experience and non-clinical approach to support the understandings of colleagues at OnTrackNY, Step Up and the broader WHCS community
• Team Communication & Collaboration: Working as an essential member of a multi-disciplinary team, documenting their interactions collaboratively, maintaining timely and accurate documentation of services in the electronic health record, and communicating back to the team.
• Ongoing Professional Development: Continuing to develop and hone skills to support this work and participating in supervision
• Completing other tasks as assigned

Minimum Qualifications:

• Certification as a New York Certified Peer Specialist (NYCPS) by the New York Peer Specialist Certification Board (NYPSCB).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Lived experience of mental health challenges
• Bilingual (English/Spanish)
• One year of prior work experience as a peer specialist
• Demonstrated proficiency in Microsoft Office Programs (Word, Excel, Outlook)

Work Location: 513 West 166th Street, New York, NY 100032

To Apply: Submit an application through our website at https://rfmh.applicantpro.com/jobs/. Please note only applications submitted through our website will be considered.

The Mission of the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc. (RFMH) is to promote the mental health of all New Yorkers, with a focus on providing hope and supporting recovery for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances. Applicants with lived mental health experience are encouraged to apply. RFMH is deeply committed to supporting underserved individuals, organizations, and communities. To this end, RFMH is focused on implementing activities and initiatives to reduce disparities in access, quality, and treatment outcomes for underserved populations. A critical component of these efforts is ensuring that RFMH is a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees' unique attributes and skills are valued and utilized to support the mission of the Agency. RFMH is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

The Research Foundation is a private not-for-profit corporation and is not an agency or instrumentality of the State of New York. Employees of the Research Foundation are not state employees, do not participate in any state retirement system, and do not receive state fringe benefits. Excellent Benefits Package. Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer - Disabled/Veteran, 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) compliant.

Salary : $56,765 - $67,981