Successfully Employing Young Adult Peer Mentors: From Research to Practice, The Employer Toolkit

While there is a movement towards hiring young adult peer mentors, providers have struggled with both recruitment and retention. Our research has shown that this issue must be addressed at multiple levels, from supporting the peer to be an effective employee to helping employers better understand the peer role and their responsibilities. This workshop will utilize interactive methods to present our research on factors supporting young adult peer success and to introduce and demonstrate the Toolkit for employing young adult peers, with a focus on organizational culture, supervision, other staff orientation/support and addressing job difficulties through the reasonable accommodation framework.