New Resource: Peer Worker Support Project

Peer Worker Support ProjectWe would like to bring to your attention a great new resource created by Terry Howard, Director of Community-Based Research at Positive Living BC : Peer Worker Support Project: Developing Industry Support Standards for Peer Workers Living with HIV

The need for this resource, which develops an industry standard of support tools to be used when employing people living with HIV, came directly from community members themselves. Peer workers; including research associates, health system navigators, counselors, and other peer workers who choose employment voiced their concerns on the inadequacies of predominantly social-work-adapted support systems that do not meet their needs as workers. Some existing supports needed merely to be modified to accommodate the needs of peer workers while others needed to be created expressly and utilized systemically on new and existing research and program based projects. This project is the genesis of the creation of a “living” document that will provide support options for peer workers and those who employ them.