We have to build back their confidence,” said Van Ton-Quinlivan, chief executive officer of Futuro Health, a California nonprofit that helps train health care workers.įuturo, in partnership with community colleges and employers, has provided training and education to more than 5,000 people for jobs such as patient care representatives, pharmacy technicians and peer support specialists. “Adults are disappearing from higher education. This has become more important as the number of students over age 24 enrolled in higher education has continued to slide, down nearly 6 percent, and more than 16 percent at community colleges, since the start of the pandemic, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

The success of Jones and others who have gone on to become recovery peer advocates shows that with the right financial and other kinds of support, and in fields where they can use their personal experiences to help others, even some of the most vulnerable can succeed at college-level training - and colleges at graduating them into good jobs. I get to sit down and listen to them - I might be the only person who has ever listened to them,” said Jones, 50, who now lives in and works out of her own apartment in Manhattan. “I enjoy the fact I never know who I’m going to meet.

Credit: Yunuen Bonaparte for The Hechinger Report LaShondra Jones is among a small but growing number of people being trained by community colleges to become certified recovery peer advocates for people who, like them, have experienced mental health and substance abuse issues. But she completed the training, passed the certification test and now works as a certified recovery peer advocate with people in, or in danger of becoming caught up in, New York’s criminal justice system. and the subway trip back to Brooklyn could take hours. Jones needed special permission to stay out past the shelter bed check time because her classes at Bronx Community College ended at 9 p.m. Her experience, in this case, would be a big plus.

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