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The Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community (RLC) was born in 2007 through a grant written by Sera Davidow in collaboration with the Guiding Council of Western Massachusetts (GCOW). The RLC is a peer-to-peer community that offers resource centers, advocacy, groups (Hearing Voices, Alternatives to Suicide, etc.), access to alternative healing practices, bridging from hospital back to community, and a variety of other supports. They have operated a peer respite since 2012. They also offer trainings locally, nationally, and internationally on a variety of topics. www.WesternMassRLC.org
Intentional Peer Support (IPS) was developed in the 1990s under the leadership of Shery Mead, and has continued to develop under the direction of Chris Hansen. IPS provides a powerful framework for creating relationships where people are supported to learn and grow together. It is about conversation. It’s about how we know, how we create new “knowing” through dialogue, and about how we as human beings interrelate by beginning to practice the art of connection – with ourselves, the people in our lives, and the people on the planet with whom we may think we have nothing in common. IPS seeks to foster relationships focused on possibility rather than fear, and to undo the culture of 'helping' and looking at our experiences through a deficit lens. It is used across the world in community, peer support, and human service settings, and is a tool for community development with broad appeal to people from all walks of life. www.IntentionalPeerSupport.org
