New york justice peer initiative: establishing a statewide network of mental health peers with lived experience of the criminal legal system as agents of transformation - cases seeks support from…

New york justice peer initiative: establishing a statewide network of mental health peers with lived experience of the criminal legal system as agents of transformation - cases seeks support from the samhsa statewide consumer network program (SCN) to scale the new york justice peer initiative (JPI) statewide with a focus on 1) building a community and movement of statewide justice peers-people with lived experience of both the CLS and behavioral health treatment system who are working to support others with similar lived experience; 2) expanding the certified justice peer workforce across new york for the delivery of criminal legal system (CLS)-specialist mental health and related support and treatment services; 3) empowering justice peers to engage in and lead program as well as policy development and implementation; and 4) creating opportunities, including through partnering in new york city and new york state government partner efforts, to strengthen services for and recovery among CLS-impacted people with serious mental illness (SMI) and serious emotional disturbance (SED), including to reduce the criminalization of mental illness. JPI was established in 2020 through the collective efforts of a coalition of justice peers, government stakeholders, nonprofit organizations employing peers in direct service programs serving people impacted by involvement in the CLS, and allies including advocates and educational institutions. JPI seeks to empower underserved and under-represented consumers, including those from ethnic, racial, or cultural minority groups and/or sexual orientation and gender minority individuals and is dedicated to promoting activities that enhance and expand justice peer leadership, voice, and engagement through mutual support, professional development training, state mental health system workforce certification, employer technical assistance including to build career ladders, and movement building focused on policy efforts to center justice peer leadership, voice, and engagement in transformation of the CLS and mental health systems. Over the past four years, JPI has engaged more than 1,500 justice peers, government stakeholders, nonprofit justice peer employers, and allies in new york city. The proposed SCN project seeks to scale JPI statewide, prioritizing non-new york city counties ranking among the top five in racial disparities in which residents are incarcerated and/or in per capita incarceration rates, including albany, chemung, genesee, monroe, ontario, schenectady, sullivan, and tioga, while continuing work in new york city. There are five goals for this project: 1) build JPI capacity from a new york city-focused initiative to a true statewide justice peer network; 2) increase justice peer training across new york, including engaging 285 people in state-certified justice peer training to expand the justice peer workforce in behavioral health and related CLS services, while providing technical assistance to government agencies and nonprofit organizations in the integration and advancement of the justice peer workforce; 3) train 225 justice peers statewide to engage in policy and advocacy efforts and strengthen statewide partnerships for justice peer integration in service design and policy development and implementation (e.g., increase the number of people with lived experience involved in ongoing mental health-related planning and advocacy activities); and 4) enhance the capacity of new york state peer-led organizations, including through the development of a peer-led operational excellence guide. Throughout the grant period, JPI will engage 900 individuals across new york state (250 in year 1, 300 in year 2, and 350 in year 3), empowering justice peer leadership to drive transformative change in the state's mental health services and criminal legal system.