This peer-led session centers the lived experience and voice of Chris, a Peer Support Specialist with Rutgers’ Telephone Recovery Support (TRS) program. Through personal storytelling and reflective dialogue, Chris explores how to offer meaningful support rooted in shared experience—while maintaining boundaries that protect one’s own recovery journey.

Drawing from her own transformation as a peer moving from a 12-step abstinence-only framework to embracing harm reduction and diverse recovery pathways, Chris candidly shares the internal shifts that allowed her to become a more compassionate, person-centered peer.

With a strong emphasis on peer values—like autonomy, dignity, and mutual respect—this session offers practical strategies grounded in real-world peer work, including:

• Creating emotional safety using trauma-informed communication

• Navigating the emotional drivers behind substance use with empathy

• Meeting people where they are—without judgment or agenda

• Applying motivational interviewing to support reflection over advice-giving

• Lifting up strengths rather than offering solutions

• Leveraging supervision and self-reflection to stay grounded and prevent burnout

Participants will walk away with concrete tools and language to support others while preserving their own identity and wellness. This session is a powerful reminder that peer support is not about leading someone else’s journey, but about walking beside them in solidarity, presence, and hope.

This peer-led session is designed for Peer Recovery Specialists who support individuals navigating both substance use and mental health challenges. While co-occurring needs are common, many peers report feeling unprepared or unsure when mental health becomes part of the conversation. This workshop creates space for peers to deepen their understanding—without stepping outside the scope of peer support.

Grounded in the core peer values of choice, autonomy, hope, and non-judgment, the session highlights how mental health recovery principles naturally align with the values Peer Recovery Specialists already embody. Rather than clinical training, this workshop offers plain-language insights and peer-centered responses to support individuals experiencing:

• Anxiety and depression

• Trauma-related responses

• Psychosis and altered states

• Emotional distress and overwhelm

Led by experienced peers, the workshop centers real-world peer strategies to reduce stigma, respond with compassion, and build authentic connection—especially in settings like harm reduction, reentry, medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), and substance use disorder (SUD) programs, where mental health is often present but not always addressed.

Participants will leave with renewed confidence, skills, and language to support individuals with co-occurring needs—while staying grounded in their role and recovery. This session elevates the power of peer voice in navigating complexity with empathy, presence, and respect.

This peer-led session introduces the Minor Adjustments Principles of Core Competencies, a value-driven model designed by and for Peer Recovery Specialists to deepen their practice through lived experience, personal growth, and authentic connection. Rooted in SAMHSA’s core peer values—voluntary, trauma-informed, recovery-oriented, person-centered, and relationship-based—this framework supports peer workers in showing up with purpose and integrity.

Rooted in the belief that recovery is not one-size-fits-all, this approach affirms multiple pathways including 12-step, harm reduction, MAT, faith-based recovery, and beyond. Through lived experience and transparent storytelling, peers can continue to learn to meet others where they are, honor individual journeys, and lead with hope, not hierarchy.

This session will explore how small, intentional shifts— “minor adjustments”—can lead to sustainable growth in four key areas: spiritual, mental, emotional, and relational. Peer specialists will walk away with tools for:

• Modeling recovery through authenticity and transparency

• Supporting purpose-driven goals with humility and empathy

• Deepening self-awareness while honoring the recovery process of others

• Balancing self-development with effective peer support

Participants will leave reconnected to the heart of peer work and equipped to create recovery spaces where healing is personal, powerful, and honoring lived experience.

This peer-led session highlights the unique synergy between recovery and harm reduction efforts in New Jersey’s evolving peer ecosystem. Focusing on Hunterdon County’s Community Peer Recovery Center (CPRC) and Harm Reduction Center (HRC)—operated by Prevention Resources, Inc.—the presentation centers the lived and living experience of peers navigating both recovery and substance use support.

Although recovery and harm reduction services have often operated in separate spheres—and at times in tension—the collaborative efforts of these two programs demonstrate a powerful model of integration with promising implications for communities across New Jersey. We will examine the intersection of recovery support and harm reduction through the lens of these innovative, peer-driven programs. Presenters will share program overviews, strategies for meeting grant requirements, and candid reflections on both successes and challenges. They will also highlight the evolution of cross-sector partnerships and community collaboration, offering a broader vision of how recovery and harm reduction efforts can work hand-in-hand to better serve individuals and communities statewide.

Participants will gain insight into:

• Collaborative outreach strategies, including rural mobile models

• Building trust through consistent community presence

• Navigating philosophical differences without compromising peer identity

• Developing meaningful partnerships that expand support networks

This session embodies peer voice by showing how authentic relationships and shared experience can unite diverse peer-led programs for stronger, more inclusive community care. Attendees will leave inspired by the importance of collaboration to transform recovery and harm reduction landscapes across New Jersey.

This peer-led session explores how Peer Recovery Specialists are transforming crisis response into long-term recovery pathways through real-time engagement, data-informed practices, and culturally responsive care. Grounded in lived experience, the workshop centers on the success of a county-wide, hospital-based peer program that positions peers as the bridge between immediate intervention and sustained support.

Presenters will share how peers are leading efforts in:

• 24/7 engagement through dispatch and emergency department response

• Using data to inform outreach, equity, and program improvement

• Reaching underrepresented and high-risk populations with intention

• Implementing trauma-informed supervision and workforce development

Designed for Peer Recovery Specialists and program leaders, this session offers real-world strategies, core peer competencies, and actionable tools for elevating peer roles in systems of care. Attendees will walk away with a renewed vision of how peer voice can drive innovation, connection, and healing across the recovery continuum.

This peer-led session explores a powerful but often overlooked reality in recovery: grief in its many forms. Beyond the grief of death, many in recovery experience deep loss—of identity, relationships, time, or even the substance that once offered escape. When unacknowledged, this hidden grief can become a silent driver of presenting challenges.

Through immersive, experiential learning, peer support professionals will deepen their grief literacy—a critical but under-discussed skill in peer practice. The session features a transformative 10-minute group exercise, followed by peer-centered discussion and tool-building to support real-world application.

Participants will leave with:

• A deeper understanding of grief as a root cause of behaviors

• Validating language that honors pain without needing to fix it

• A pocket-sized guide to integrate these tools into daily peer work

Rooted in lived experience and peer wisdom, this workshop empowers Peer Recovery Specialists to meet others in their full humanity—with presence, empathy, and respect. It’s not about solving grief—it’s about witnessing it, together.

This workshop session is designed especially for peer recovery specialists interested in beginning to work with individuals involved in the sex trade. You’ll gain a clear understanding of the basics—including the distinctions between sex work and sex trafficking—and explore compassion-centered approaches that foster respectful and supportive relationships. If you’re looking to build a strong foundation for effectively supporting sex working clients, this 101-level session offers practical insights and a thoughtful introduction to this important work. Come join us and expand your knowledge with empathy and care.