Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112322

Ladelle Cole, ALSO Cornerstone, P.O. Box 2991, Westville, CT 06450, 203-630-2646, dare2bfree2005@yahoo.com and Lorraine McMullin, BA, Policy Research Associates, 345 Delaware Avenue, Delmar, NY 12054.

Although peer mentoring is an accepted part of many substance abuse interventions, the use of peer mentoring in services for women who are homeless is not a common practice. Three of the programs involved in the SAMHSA Collaborative Program on Homeless Families incorporated peer mentoring in the design of their services. The presenter will outline the peer mentoring models used at the three programs. She will describe issues encountered in the use of peer mentoring for engagement and retention and impact of peer mentoring with this population of women who are homeless and have mental health and/or substance use disorders. In addition, the presenter will discuss what she has learned as a peer mentor and why peer mentor engagement and retention models should be considered for expanded use in programs for homeless women.

Ladelle Cole is employed as a Certified Parent Educator at the Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis, a nonprofit agency in New Haven, CT. Prior to this position, she worked as a HOPE Team Substance Abuse Case Manager for homeless mothers in New Haven, CT. Ladelle is a member of the SAMHSA Homeless Families Program's Consumer Panel.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Participants will be able to describe the peer mentoring models used in three programs for mothers who are homeless.
• 2. Participants will be able to articulate how peer mentoring was used to increase the mothers’ abilities to stabilize their families.
• 3. Participants will be able to use this knowledge to consider how peer mentoring could be incorporated into services for mothers who are homeless.

Keywords: Homelessness, Women

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.