Empowering our own: Peer leadership training for a drop-in center

A series of six half-day educational and skills training sessions were plan ned and successfully implemented in collaboration with a peer-run drop-in c enter for people with psychiatric disabilities as a way to facilitate perso nal and organizational empowerment. Longitudinal evaluative data suggests t he training was extremely well received and that content on communication s k,ills and problem-solving was perceived as most useful. The "Empowering Ou r Own" training stands as an example of the use of group work ideas and ski lls in a collaborative effort to help people with psychiatric disabilities move toward mastery in their peer-run organizations and recovery in their p ersonal lives.