Peer Specialist Fellow

THE ORGANIZATION

The Center for Justice Innovation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing community safety and racial justice. Since 1996, we've worked alongside communities, courts, and those most directly affected by the justice system to build stronger, healthier, and more equitable neighborhoods. With a team of over 900 staff and an annual budget of $130 million, the Center carries out its mission through three core strategies:

Operating Programs that pilot new ideas and address local challenges;

Conducting original research to evaluate what works-and what doesn't; and

Providing expert assistance and policy guidance to reformers across the country and beyond.

Backed by decades of on-the-ground experience and nationally recognized expertise, we bring innovative, practical, and lasting solutions to justice systems nationwide.
Learn more about our work ovatingjustice.org.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Manhattan Justice Opportunities seeks to rethink justice in Manhattan and build a justice system that is more responsive to individuals' and communities' needs. Manhattan Justice is a centralized, court-based screening, resource, and referral hub that provides judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys at New York County Criminal Court and Supreme Court with a wide array of social service-based sentencing options in misdemeanor and felony cases.

Manhattan Justice offers onsite case management, psycho-educational groups, and restorative justice programming, and provides referrals to community-based service providers for mental health, substance use, employment, primary health care services and more. These services, which are open to anyone who needs them-including mandated participants' families and friends, and others affected by the criminal justice system-help people address underlying issues in their lives, build stability, and decrease their likelihood of further justice involvement.

Manhattan Justice Opportunities is seeking a Peer Specialist Fellow. Reporting to the Clinical Director of Felony Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI), the Peer Specialist Fellow will join a team of staff-including social workers, mental health counselors, peer specialists, and case managers-who work with defendants participating in the Manhattan Felony ATI Court. The ATI Court, which is led by Administrative Judge Ellen Biben, seeks to forge a new response to individuals charged with felonies by linking them to community-based social services.

The Court is the first of its kind, providing an innovative model for other jurisdictions seeking to develop and implement meaningful post-conviction sentencing options for individuals facing felony charges.

The Peer Specialist Fellow will be part of a team that provides independent, holistic clinical assessments, treatment planning, and case management services to mandated participants in the ATI Court. The Peer Specialist Fellow will engage new participants in court to ensure successful connection to community-based services and support existing participants in their programming. An essential feature of the Peer Specialist Fellow's role is close collaboration with the participants' assigned social worker/case manager, service providers, and community contacts.

The Peer Specialist Fellow will communicate regularly with members of the participants' team to support the participant's engagement in services and successful program completion. The Peer Specialist Fellow will also be able to work toward a formal peer certification as part of the fellowship.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Use lived experience, share personal recovery stories, and model healthy coping strategies to connect with participants and support them in their goals;
• Offer encouragement, education, and practical assistance, including one-on-one coaching, and connect participants to resources;
• Assist participants in identifying their goals;
• Attend court appearances to help engage newly mandated participants in services, as well as to help participants navigate the court process more generally;
• Engage participants who have been released from custody and motivate them to engage in services;
• Accompany…