Youth Peer Mentor Program (YPMP)

The Youth Peer Mentor Program (YPMP) was developed to support the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) goal to serve youth and rural areas of the state to reduce unmet treatment needs and opioid/fentanyl overdose related deaths through the provision of evidence-based prevention, treatment, and recovery services. ​

• The Youth Peer Mentor Program (YPMP) project was initially piloted in 2019/2020 at the California Department of Corrections (CDCR), Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) as part of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Expansion Project funder under the State Opioid Response (SOR) grant.​ (Click here to see DJJ YPMP Video.)
• ​The YPMP was expanded in 2021/2022 to create scalable and sustainable programs and services that are evidence-based, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and met the needs of youth in underserved communities across the State of California.​
• The YPMP has been funded under SOR 3 to continue statewide expansion in 2023/2024.

The Youth Peer Mentor Program (YPMP) seeks to address California’s substance use crisis by:​

• Providing culturally responsive substance use education, prevention, harm reduction and expansive experiences to young adults across California (with a focus on system-impacted and marginalized at-risk youth)​.
• Helping individuals, especially those with lived experience, become Medi-Cal Peer Support Specialists (PSS) and enter the substance use disorder treatment workforce as certified SUD Counselors​.
• Creating scalable and sustainable programs by building capacity across California through community partnerships to help deliver YPMP​.

Learn more about YPMP (Click Links Below):

• YPMP Overview 2023 and Beyond
• YPMP Tier 1 Appendix
• Natural High Retreats

Hear More From Our YPMP Participants

Brittney and Taj were selected to be part of a youth panel discussion at the 2023 Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) Integrated Care Conference. They both started as participants in our Youth Peer Mentor Program (YPMP) in 2020. They went on to become Peer Mentors in their community, certified facilitators in our Mindfulness-Based Substance Abuse Treatment program, Peer Mentors at our Natural High Retreats, and they are now certified Substance Use Disorder Counselors in the state of California. Here is an intro video which was used at the recent DHCS conference.

Hear From Our Partners

Our team works with non-profits, CBOs, foster youth programs, school districts, county offices of education, county behavioral health, probation, juvenile detention centers, prisons and jails. Our goal is to equip our partners through training and technical assistance to deliver trauma-informed, evidence-based programming in mindfulness-based substance use prevention and recovery for youth and young adults. As of mid 2023, our team has trained over 150 facilitators from more than 40 partners across the State of California. We are here to serve our partners and support them in reaching youth and young adults in their communities.