About

OUR MISSION

To inspire recovery, resilience, and wellness through professional development in order to equip emerging leaders and strengthen the integrated healthcare workforce from a lived experience perspective.

Collaboration

The Academy was built from the collaborative efforts of peers and family members who receive behavioral health services, advocate for policies that impact mental health, and/or provide behavioral health services within Arizona’s integrated healthcare system. With a vision to increase access to evidence based, high quality peer support and family support services, the Academy is the only statewide entity invested in workforce development efforts with a primary focus on continuing education of credentialed peer and family support professionals.

Focus

The Academy increases access to evidence-based peer-to-peer and family-to-family programs to help people with mental health and/or substance use related needs achieve whole person wellness goals. This is done through the following:

1) offering professional development and advanced level training to peer and family support professionals;

2) providing support and peer-to-peer networking opportunities for industry professionals; and

3) working with social service delivery systems and healthcare provider organizations to expand the use of peer and family support services into non-traditional settings.

Values

•Our value of authenticity is to uphold the highest standards of accountability and excellence in all aspects of our operations, ensuring transparency and integrity in everything we do.

•We seek collaboration to foster a dynamic environment where reliability and teamwork are paramount, enabling us to leverage the diverse strengths of our partnerships and achieve collective success through effective communication and mutual support.

•Our desire is to be a catalyst for positive change, guided by a spirit of kindness and a clear vision of a world where empathy and compassion are at the forefront. We believe that small acts of kindness can lead to significant positive change.

•We aspire to create a culture of growth that values knowledge acquisition, promotes work-life balance, and supports ongoing professional or personal development.

•We are committed to promoting a culture of communication excellence, where transparency, honesty, empathy, and inclusivity guide our interactions and drive meaningful learning experiences for all.