Peer Talk is a short presentation to inspire, educate and spark conversations around innovative ideas, while sharing knowledge and fostering dialogue.

To receive 1.5 CEs for this session, you must attend all three Peer Talks. Partial CEs will not be awarded.

Barriers: Lessons That Only the Work Teaches Us

This peer talk explores how individuals and systems can move beyond obstacles that often limit access, engagement, and progress in recovery-oriented settings. Barriers; whether personal, structural, or systemic, are a common part of the journey, but they can also become opportunities for growth, innovation, and meaningful change. Grounded in lived experience and frontline practice, this session examines how challenges such as stigma, limited resources, communication gaps, and system constraints impact outcomes. Participants will gain insight into how small, purposeful shifts in approach, advocacy, collaboration, flexibility, and persistence; can create momentum and open new pathways forward.

Presented By:
Kristina DeClue – CPSS

Rewriting the Story of Struggle: Turning Setbacks into Purpose.

This peer talk is designed for peers and recovery professionals that invite participants to re-examine how adversity shapes identity and direction. Drawing from lived-experience, psychology, and purpose-driven insight, the session explores how personal setbacks, systemic barriers, and internal challenges can become meaningful sources of growth rather than defining limitations. Through storytelling and guided reflection, participants are encouraged to examine the narratives they have accepted about failure, labels, and struggle, and to consider how those experiences can be reframed with intention and meaning.

Presented By:
Stacey Foster – CPRC

What I Built When Everything Fell Apart

This peer talk will focus on how to use barriers as information, authenticity as a pathway, and permission as a cornerstone, to rebuild yourself to courageously take the next step.

Presented By:
Carolyn Pifer – CPSS, CHW