Spotlight on Peer Support
“This is where I start my work every day,” says Toni Love, Peer Support Specialist, as she settles herself at the check-in table at Lucille Giles Center, preparing for that night’s guests to enter at 4:30 p.m. “I can see everything from right here — how people are feeling, who might be worked up. I greet them all. I can tell who might need some extra support that day, and who is agitated. You can tell a lot from body language. Based on what I learn right here, I make my plan for the evening.”
Lucille Giles Center hosts 118 men on a nightly basis.
As a Peer Support Specialist, Ms. Love’s job is to use her lived experience to counsel and support others on similar journeys. For her, that lived experience includes homelessness, incarceration, substance use and struggles with mental health. After 20 years of recovery and professional experience in human services, she brings profound empathy and compassion to her job.
Positive Impact
Roof Above recognizes the positive impact peer support can make. In addition to having peer support specialists on the team, Roof Above partners with Amara Wellness to bring peer support services to tenants in our permanent supportive housing communities and to our neighbors at our Day Services Center.
Shared experience helps our shelter guests establish trust, which is an essential foundation as they begin their journey with Roof Above. Those journeys may include shelter, healthcare services, including mental health, employment support, and the ultimate goal of housing. Ms. Love works closely with Cheryl Goodridge, the Housing Navigator onsite at Lucille Giles Center.
Ms. Love says her days are varied, rewarding, and intense: “I meet with men from 5:30 – 10:30 p.m. You never know when someone needs some space to cry about what they are going through . . . or when someone is ready to start treatment for substance use. I have been where these guys are, and now I want to provide a listening ear and support. Everyone deserves that.”