Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH)

06/03/2026

Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH) invites!
Thursday, June 25th, 2pm or 7pm, to the Yale Rep Rehearsal Room to see The Shape of Reality! Written and developed by Survivors of Society Rising players with Yale Rep and Yale Drama students! (Play addresses themes of SUD, recovery, loss, neighborhood, community, and hope. It's well written, and the acting is top tier!!!

Register to get your tickets! (see flyer for info - RSVP at

bit.ly/Survivors2026Organized by Richard Youins - peer supporter & peer supervisor at Yale PRCH/CMHC and Lucile Bruce.

Survivors of Society Rising is an interactive theater company in New Haven, Connecticut, that amplifies the voices of people in recovery, with lived experience in addiction, and others, sharing personal stories of trauma and resilience.
The group, associated with projects like the New Haven Play Project and performances at NXTHVN, works to turn personal challenges into public art and community dialogue. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Key Aspects of Survivors of Society Rising:
Performance & Mission: They produce immersive, interactive plays, such as "Times Like These," to break the stigma surrounding recovery and trauma, often collaborating with other community groups like young refugees. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Background: Founded to give a platform to individuals in recovery, including clients of the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC), the group encourages participants to take the stage and share their personal narratives of surviving societal challenges. [1, 2, 3]
Community Connection: Their work is deeply connected to the New Haven arts and advocacy scene, aiming for personal healing and social change through theater. [1, 2, 3]
https://www.newhavenarts.org/arts-paper/articles/after-pandemic-pause-survivors-of-society-rise

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2019/06/26/new_haven_play_project_2019/

https://www.newhavenarts.org/arts-paper/articles/survivors-called-to-the-stage-spill-their-stories

06/02/2026

We are delighted to invite you to the 2025/2026 International Recovery & Citizenship Collective (IRCC) Seminar Series, themed:
"Co-Creating a Sense of Belonging in Illness and Disability: A Holistic Worldview Experience through the Five Rs of Citizenship"
Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH)Chyrell BellamyClarissa Corradi WebsterAleida Fajardo Rodríguez
Date:6/25/2026
Time:11 am to 12 pm Eastern time.
Title: Presentation title: Community Recovery Experiences and Voice- Hearing: Parallels between Brazil and Colombia
Presented by: Aleida Fajardo Rodríguez -Docente Asociada Corporación Universitaria Iberoamericana and Clarissa M. Corradi-Webster – Associate Professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
The presentation will discuss preliminary results of a collaborative study between Brazil and Colombia on community mental health recovery strategies developed by people who hear voices across different cultural and community contexts. Similarities and differences between the experiences in both countries will be presented, highlighting how cultural, community, and relational aspects influence recovery trajectories.
The presentation will address topics such as self-care, peer support, sense of belonging, confronting stigma, life projects, and social inclusion, discussing how these experiences can be understood through the lens of the 5Rs of citizenship
FREE REGISTRATION
https://yalesurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com/.../SV_8nXO4h15Iu2vMAS

06/01/2026

From the Poster Session: Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Katherine Ponte, BA, JD, MBA, CPRP, Professor Chyrell Bellamy, PhD, MSW, and Research Scientist Mark Costa, MD, MPH, from the Yale School of Medicine, presented: The Greeting Card Effect: Preventing Su***de with Caring Contacts from Inpatient to Home.

Su***de risk is highest following psychiatric hospitalization, highlighting the need for humane, scalable prevention strategies grounded in lived experience. This project proposes a peer-delivered Greeting Cards Intervention based on evidence-supported caring contacts and designed by people with lived experience of mental illness, hospitalization, caregiving, and su***de loss.

Building on an effort that has distributed more than 25,000 handwritten cards across nine psychiatric hospitals, the study uses a co-design approach to refine card messaging, peer training, and fidelity tools. A proposed pilot will assess feasibility, acceptability, safety, and measurement procedures for delivering greeting cards during hospitalization and sustaining caring contacts.

06/01/2026

Special Issue Call for Papers: The Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Understanding and Upholding Authenticity in Peer /Lived and Living Experience Workforces (Abstracts due July 1, 2026)
Guest Editors: Louise Byrne, Megan Evans, Cath Roper, Megan Edwards, Helena Roennfeldt, Taina Martinez Laing, Keris Myrick, Felecia Pullen, Melissa Chapman, & Chyrell Bellamy.
In recent years, peer support and the broader Lived and Living experience workforce have expanded dramatically across mental health, substance use, and related health and social service systems. Increasingly designated Lived and Living Experience roles are being employed in support services and beyond.
While the evidence base for peer/Lived Experience work continues to grow—demonstrating improvements in hope, activation, engagement, and recovery outcomes—less attention has been paid to how authenticity is defined, operationalized, protected, and reproduced over time. When Lived and Living experience expertise is marginalized, co-opted, or narrowly professionalized, the consequences can include role drift, erosion of mutuality, epistemic injustice, workforce burnout, and dilution of the social movement roots of peer work.
The Journal of Humanistic Psychology editorial team is inviting submissions for a special issue of the journal focused on Understanding and Upholding Authenticity in Peer /Lived and Living Experience Workforces
This special issue invites contributions that critically examine how authenticity can be sustained and advanced across Lived and Living experience workforces and in Lived Experience–led research. We are particularly interested in scholarship that moves beyond inclusion toward cohesion—work that demonstrates how experiential knowledge is generated, shared, refined, and embedded throughout systems, organizations, communities, and research enterprises. We are calling on you to share with us some of the cutting-edge, innovative and/or collaborative approaches that explore:
Submissions may examine workforce development, training, supervision, governance, co-production, implementation science, intersectionality, identity formation, epistemic justice, evaluation methods, and effectiveness research—particularly when grounded in the voices and leadership of Lived and Living experience experts.
Visit the Sage landing page for more information on submitting an abstract.
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/jhp/call_for_papers

05/29/2026