Our members have come together in shared advocacy to make a difference in the mental health and substance use system. We met as part of a peer council in our county. However, we were told that advocacy did not have a place there. Finding no peer advocacy group to join in our community, we built our own. Our strength comes from our diverse experiences of challenge and recovery. We are eager to share our experience and expertise with our peers, professionals, and everyone in between

​

We aim to make a BIG difference: We have pledged to transform a system that has historically failed us. By choosing recovery over "recycling," we intend to show that individuals cycling in and out of inpatient facilities and outpatient programs have not "failed in the community." Instead, it is our community that has failed us through misguided systems that have been designed FOR us and not BY us. Peers know what works. We will no longer be on the fringes in occasional focus groups. We will be working side by side with our county and state governments. as equals in leadership roles.

We also recognize that "new" is not always "better." The transformation from the Mental Health Services Act to the Behavioral Health Services Act "threw the baby out with the bathwater." We intend to resurrect what appear to be discarded values: 1) Community Collaboration; 2) Cultural Competence/Humility; 3) Client Driven Care; 4) Wellness, Recovery and Resilience Focused; and 5) Integrated Service Experience.

​