Welcome to the Vermont Peer Workforce!

We’re so glad you’re here! This site is designed to provide comprehensive resources and information to connect and empower mental health peer support workers in Vermont.

Click the headers at the top of this page to learn more about the Peer Workforce Development Initiative, Certified Peer Support Provider Training, Intentional Peer Support, and explore our training opportunities. Or keep scrolling to learn more about us!

Who Are We?

We are leaders in the state’s peer workforce movement and we’re working to improve fidelity, consistency, infrastructure, communication, resource sharing, and coalition building. We are dedicated to ensuring that the Vermont peer workforce has a place to belong, a place to learn, and a place to go to for the most up-to-date information regarding mental health peer support in VT.

Our History

Pathways Vermont Training Institute was awarded a grant for the Peer Workforce Development Initiative (PWDI) by the Vermont Department of Mental Health (DMH) in 2020. The PWDI grant was developed by DMH to build and maintain an infrastructure for a statewide mental health peer support workforce.

Pathways Vermont Training Institute has operationalized PWDI and supported the expansion of peer support services by providing training, mentorship, and ongoing job support of peer support workers statewide.

In October 2025, Pathways Vermont Training Institute received a contract from Vermont DMH to establish and maintain Vermont’s Peer Certification Training Center. With the addition of this contract, our role in the landscape of Vermont’s peer workforce has expanded and we will provide the training for Certified Peer Support Providers in Vermont.

Our Guiding Values

  • Choice & self-determination

  • Autonomy & cognitive liberty

  • Diversity, equity, inclusion & accessibility

  • Person-centered, trauma-informed, & healing-centered approaches

  • Anti-coercion & anti-force

  • Nothing about us without us

  • Each person is the expert of their own experience 

  • Honoring & promoting human rights

  • Preserving human dignity

  • Innovative, community-driven mental health alternatives & approaches

Our Goals

  • Provide education, resources, information, and networking opportunities to peer support workers in Vermont

  • Evaluate and advocate for statewide peer workforce needs

  • Cultivate statewide awareness of peer support certification and professional educational opportunities for peer support workers

  • Offer training and technical assistance to individuals and organizations to ensure fidelity-based peer support integration into VT's mental health system

Pathways Vermont Training Institute Staff

Our Team

Alexander Ferguson
he/him

Amey Dettmer
she/her

Betsy Hoekstra
she/her

J Helms
they/them

Cove Nichols
they/them

Malaika Puffer
she/her

Lindsay Mesa
she/her

Kirk Paré
he/him

Contract Trainers

Aaron Schiff
he/him

Calvin Moen
he/him

Rebeka Lawrence-Gomez
she/her

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Pathways Vermont Training Institute is available for training, technical assistance, and consultation related to peer support practice, implementation, and fidelity. Contact us at peerworkforce@pathwaysvermont.org to inquire for TA or specific support.

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