Peer Support Specialist

Position Description

Work, Serve, Thrive. With the City of Durham Advance in your career while making a real difference in the community you serve.

Hiring Range: $53,272-$64,766 Annually

Schedule: Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. Full-time with benefits, 40 hours per week.

In 2022, the Durham Community Safety Department (DCSD) launched four 911 crisis response programs—collectively known as HEART (Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams). In 2025, DCSD has added a new division focused on Stabilization Services. This expansion represents an exciting new phase in DCSD's development—and a thrilling opportunity to pair alternative response programs with stabilization services that can better support neighbors.

The start date for this position will be October 5th, 2026.

ABOUT THE ROLE DCSD recruits Certified Peer Support Specialists for our Care Navigation, Familiar Neighbors and Community Response Teams. DCSD recognizes lived experience as an important form of expertise that helps better position our teams to provide compassionate care. The Peer Support Specialist is a full-time, benefits-eligible position that provides person-centered case management and peer support to individuals engaged with the Care Navigation Team. Drawing upon lived experience, this role builds trusting relationships with neighbors, helps identify individual needs and goals, and connects individuals to appropriate community resources and services, including behavioral health care, housing, healthcare, benefits, and other supportive services. The Peer Support Specialist provides ongoing follow-up, advocacy, and resource navigation while maintaining accurate and timely documentation and coordinating with clinicians, community partners, and other service providers. This role supports a trauma-informed, strengths based, and equitable approach that promotes individual choice, self-determination, and meaningful connection to care.

Familiar Neighbors is a part of our Stabilization Services support for neighbors navigating housing insecurity, reentry after incarceration, behavioral health needs, and other complex life challenges—connecting them to resources and longer-term support. DCSD also leads Durham's Continuum of Care (CoC) and coordinates local homeless services to prevent and end homelessness through collaboration, service alignment, and strategic investment. Familiar Neighbors aims to connect to resources and build relationships with neighbors experiencing frequent emergency service, justice involvement, and/or serious mental illness.

The Community Response Team sends multi-person teams—that may include a Clinician (Team Lead), Peer Support Specialist, and/or an EMT. These teams respond to 911 calls involving behavioral health and quality of life related concerns. CRT responds in-person, without law enforcement and our data has shown a safety rating for over 99 percent of calls. Peer Support Specialists regularly engage with Neighbors by providing input on community resources, interventions, and support through the lens of their previous lived experience.

Duties/Responsibilities

• Respond to referrals involving mental health, substance use, housing instability, and other psychosocial needs using trauma-informed, person-centered strategies informed by lived experience.

• Provide case management or crisis support, resource navigation, and advocacy to identify goals, address barriers, and connect neighbors with appropriate community services and supports.

• Coordinate warm handoffs and ongoing follow-up with clinicians, DCSD teams, community partners, and service providers to promote continuity of care.

• Build trusting, strengths-based relationships that promote self-determination, recovery, wellness, and meaningful engagement in services.

• Maintain timely, accurate, and confidential documentation of referrals, services, follow-up activities, outcomes, and resource connections.

• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams and community agencies to coordinate services and strengthen access to behavioral health and community resources.

• Participate in supervision, team meetings, professional development, and program improvement while incorporating lived experience and peer perspectives.

• Maintain professional boundaries, intentional self-disclosure, effective communication, and personal wellness practices to sustain resilience and effective peer support.

• Improve accuracy for structured artifacts

Minimum Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum of a high school diploma or GED, with 2 years of direct lived experience related to substance use, behavioral health, or the criminal justice system.

• Peer Support Specialist Certification

• Strong understanding of behavioral health symptoms and crisis intervention strategies, with the ability to connect individuals to appropriate resources.

• Must be able to travel within Durham, walk or stand for up to 75% of a shift, and have basic computer proficiency.

• Demonstrated commitment to the department's mission and values.

• Must have a valid, unrestricted, North Carolina driver's license "or" if you currently have another state driver's license, must be willing and able to obtain a valid NC driver's license within 60 days of hire

Additional Preferred Skills

• At least two years of experience in peer counseling or related work with diverse populations. Prior professional experience in crisis response or intervention is preferred.

• Experience engaging with individuals under high stress, including those impacted by mental illness, substance use, intellectual and developmental disabilities, justice involvement, or homelessness. Lived experience in these areas strongly valued.

• Knowledge of service delivery systems including counseling, treatment planning, documentation, utilization review, and NC clinical policies (e.g., ACT, CST, IOP, SACOT, Innovations Waiver). Skilled in data management and maintaining HIPAA compliance.

• Bilingual abilities, especially in Spanish, are highly preferred. Familiarity with Durham's health systems and community resources is a plus.

• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills, with a demonstrated commitment to community advancement and advocacy—particularly within Durham.

Benefits

Benefits – General Full-Time Employees

• 12-13 paid holidays per year
• 13 standard work days of vacation per year
• 13 standard work days of sick leave per year, which accumulates indefinitely; sick leave may be used toward early retirement
• 2 weeks paid military leave per year
• Medical, dental, vision, and supplemental life insurance plans
• State and City retirement plans
• Short and long term disability plans
• Paid temporary disability leave for specified conditions
• City contribution of 13.6% into the N.C. State Retirement System
• Paid funeral leave
• Employee Assistance Program - personal and family counseling
• Paid life insurance equal to annual salary
• 48 hours for volunteer work each year*
• 4 hours parental leave each year
• Workman's Compensation Insurance
• 457 Deferred Compensation Plans

Benefits - Part-Time (1,000 hours or more per year)

• 401(k) retirement plan (5.0% of salary)
• State retirement plan

Benefits Part-Time (Average 30 hours per week over 12 month period)

• 401(k) retirement plan (5.0% of salary)
• State retirement plan effective first day of the month following date of hire
• Health insurance effective first day of the month following date of hire
• Dental and life insurance, after one year of service
• Pro-rated vacation, pro-rated sick, pro-rated floating holiday, parttime holiday pay (based on scheduled hours for that day) after one year of service