This podcast, hosted by the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP), focuses on peer support in drug courts.
This podcast, part of the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program (or “COAP”) podcast series focusing on peer recovery supports, highlights the work that peer specialists do in drug courts. “The Power of Peers” podcast was produced by the Peer Recovery Support Services Technical Assistance Center, a project funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). The center is staffed by Altarum, a nonprofit organization that creates solutions to advance health among vulnerable and publicly insured populations. Because May is National Drug Court Month, this edition of the podcast highlights the work of peer specialists in drug courts, in two segments excerpted from webinars presented in 2018. The first segment features S. Bailey Davis, Director of Community Justice Programs in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology. He discusses the core philosophies of peer supports. The second segment features Jessica Defrees, the Project Director of REACH Too, a program of Consumer Voices Are Born in Vancouver, Washington. She describes one comprehensive model of peer recovery support services for therapeutic court participants.