New peer-to-peer program planned through Community Help Center
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A few weeks from now, the Community Help Center will begin providing services to homeless people who are dealing with behavioral health issues through a new peer-to-peer program that Director Roxann Tyger believes is a one-of-a-kind initiative in Pennsylvania.
The adult-peer-led shelter will be staffed by specialists who have recovered from behavioral health challenges in their own lives. All of them will be state-certified.
Cambria House, formerly the Martha and Mary House on Bedford Street in Dale, has 13 emergency-shelter beds for men. Six beds will be available specifically for women in the program at the Women's Help Center on Napoleon Street.
'The peers, the staff themselves are people who have recovered from mental illness or behavioral health,' said Tyger, director of the Women's Help Center, of which the Community Help Center is a division.
'They go through a really intensive state certification training. They have to take an exam. The nice thing with that is they're people who have been there. They've experience a lot of the same things. They've lived it. They're just going to really walk hand-in-hand with people in the shelters and just help them.'
Tyger and other dignitaries officially launched the peer program Thursday afternoon with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Cambria House.
'Today's moment marks not just the opening of a building, but the launch of a compassionate, community driven resource for those experiencing homelessness,' Cambria County Commissioner Thomas Chernisky said.
Multiple agencies were involved in developing the program, including Behavioral Health of Cambria County and Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania's Cambria County Service Operations.
'With encouragement and help from the staff and their daily needs met, people can truly start to rebuild their lives and get back on a path to success,' said Tracy Shultz, director of Cambria County Service Operations, Magellan Behavioral Health of Pennsylvania.
'This can significantly improve their well- being and increase their chances of finding stable housing.'
Tracy Selak, BHoCC's administrator, spoke about the need for the shelter and program, saying, 'People say all the time Cambria County doesn't have a homeless program. That is not true. … That homeless problem is Cambria County residents. There is a percentage of it that is folks from outside of Cambria County.'
Dave Sutor is a reporter for The Tribune- Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Sutor.
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