Peer-Run/Peer-Driven
About the Mental Health Association of Nebraska [MHA-NE]:
Established in 2001, MHA-NE is a nonprofit, peer operated, and participant-driven organization dedicated to serving and providing alternative programs to those who live with mental health and/or substance use and addiction issues.
From the employees to the Board Members, each individual have lived with some sort of personal challenge. Whether it was mental health, addiction, incarceration, or all of the above, MHA has grown alongside them.
Currently, MHA is developing and actively implementing a peer-driven program inside Nebraska’s prison system. It involves training those incarcerated within to use Intentional Peer Support to promote healthy relationships to create safer communities inside and outside those walls. One of the MHA’s [staff member] trainers had herself been through the penal system. She is one of the many outstanding examples of the power of empathy, intentionality, and personal strength.
It is MHA’s cause to both assist others in finding wellness as well as employ and empower those who have the most to give when it comes to overcoming past traumas and personal struggles. Through the use of evidence-based training and practices such as Intentional Peer Support, Wellness Recovery Action Plan, public speaking, and the use of creative ideas, MHA can cross bridges to generate relationships that create a more inclusive and safer community for us all.
