Join us for the next webinar in the Peer-Run Organization Learning Collaborative Webinar Series!

Leaders and emerging leaders of peer-run organizations will gain skills to develop, strengthen, and sustain their mental health organizations. Topics will range from the nuts and bolts of organizing like budgeting, board development, fundraising, and strategic planning as well as other important topics such as conflict resolution, inclusion, and relationship building. We will explore each topic through the lens of what it is to be a peer-run organization. This is a collaboration is between the five Consumer/Consumer Supporter Technical Assistance Centers: the National Empowerment Center, the Cafe TA Center, NAMI STAR Center, Doors to Wellbeing, and Peerlink. Each center will take turns offering webinars geared toward their particular expertise during the series.

Register Here!

Tuesday, May 19th, 2020
2:00 – 3:30 pm ET

The Importance of Cultural Diversity, Equity, and Intersectionality in Peer Work

In this webinar we will be discussing the importance of cultural diversity, equity, and intersectionality in doing peer work, specifically within peer-run organizations. When we fail to include diverse voices and recognize that mental health can look quite different depending on where you come from and your unique experiences, the quality of peer work is severely diminished. On the flip side, when we look through the lens of inclusion, there is so much to be learned about our collective and individual mental health from the wide range of experience and culture that makes up humanity . Having this awareness enhances peer work because then we are able to go beyond our own experience and what has worked for us and our own culture, and support others to find their own paths. In the webinar, we will go over the meaning of all of these concepts in more detail and take a look at where we have been and where we hope to go.

Presented by:


Chacku Mathai is an Indian-American, born in Kuwait, who became involved in consumer/survivor/ex-patient advocacy and peer support when he was 15 years old. Chacku’s personal experiences with trauma, suicide, and disabling mental health and substance use challenges, including being diagnosed with psychotic disorders, as a youth and young adult, launched Chacku and his family towards a number of efforts to advocate for improved services, social conditions, and alternative supports in the community. He has since accumulated over thirty years of experience in a variety of roles including youth leadership, community organizing/advocacy, direct service, training, and program leadership in Community Mental Health Centers, residential programs, and peer support, as well as international, national, statewide, and local board governance and executive leadership roles.

Sae Kim currently serves as the executive director of Wisconsin Milkweed Alliance, Inc. (WIMA), a non-profit peer organization that oversees the Monarch House Peer Run Respite program in northwest Wisconsin. Sae is a Korean national who spent most of her life in the U.S. and has experienced a host of challenges arising from the immigration system. Sae’s background is in social work and public interest law. She has worked with children and families as well as undocumented folk.

Moderated by:


Oryx Cohen, Chief Operating Officer, National Empowerment Center

SAVE THE DATE

The next in the series: Building Partnerships to Enhance the Peer Workforce on July 14th at 2 pm ET!