About CAPS Academy
Our Academy is an experience, not just a training. We believe in creating a welcoming learning community where everyone's voices, perspectives and experiences are shared and heard. Our faculty brings an unwavering commitment to our values as peers. We believe the student experience can bring about individual transformation, and are devoted to helping students become agents of change.
Our Signature Gift is opening hearts and igniting minds. We give it by providing the space and love for people to thrive and transform, challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations, being our authentic selves, nurturing the collective consciousness and mutual support, and laughing at the chaos.
Project Return Peer Support Network
Lead: Los Angeles Region, Southern and Central Counties
PRPSN is an independent, peer-run organization providing peer support services in a range of settings throughout Los Angeles (LA) County and is an associate of both MHA and MHAC. PRPSN Programs are designed around SAMHSA’s Eight Dimensions of Wellness and utilize a variety of evidence-based practices in service delivery.
PRPSN’s diverse programs are on the cutting edge of peer provided services. Today services include a robust training program that has seventeen years’ experience training peers in preparation for employment or volunteer work in the public mental health system (over 800 peers have successfully completed training and obtained certificates), a peer run crisis respite house, an English/Spanish Warm Line, two Spanish language programs for consumers and families and a community integration program for individuals who previously were in locked settings and over 150 peer support groups provided on a weekly basis in all service areas of Los Angeles County and online. Groups are facilitated by peer volunteers who are trained, supported, and supervised by paid peer staff.
PRPSN works in a wide range of settings from forensic facilities, board and care homes, county jail, community-based wellness centers, mental health centers, churches, and community centers. PRPSN Training Institute is the oldest Peer Supporter training in Los Angeles County and one of the first non-profit peer training programs to be recognized as a pre-requisite by MHA National for their National Certified Peer Supporter Certificate. PRPSN has trained peers from all over the world and throughout California.
For more info about Project Return Peer Support Network, visit prpsn.org
Mental Health America of California
Partner: Superior, Northern, and Central Counties
MHAC is a statewide 501(c)(3), peer-run organization with 90% of the organization’s employees, advisory boards and Board of Directors as peers, leading the state since 1957 to educate and advocate on behalf of underserved, inappropriately served and unserved communities across the state. MHAC consists of six affiliate/associate service-providing organizations in the counties of Alameda, Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Barbara.
MHAC’s Transitional Age Youth (TAY – youth aged 15-26) program, California Youth Empowerment Network (CAYEN), is a peer education and mentor program with teams in the counties of Butte, Fresno, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, San Diego and Tehama including county employees and community based direct service providers.
MHAC’s Peer Certificate Training program has trained peers in the counties of Fresno, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Shasta, Solano, Siskiyou and Tehama. MHAC’s Connection Coalition program consists of California state-ran organizations representing family and peer groups, County Behavioral Health Boards and Commissions, California Planning Council, Alcohol and Drug Program Executives, Pharmacy Groups, Psychiatrists, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California Hospital Association, Psychologists, County Behavioral Health Directors Association, Forensic Mental Health Professionals.
For more info about Mental Health America of California, visit mhac.org