Neighbor News
Join a Community of HEALing in Essex County, MA
Project HEAL is actively recruiting recovery mentors! Mentors have suffered from an eating disorder and are trained to provide peer support.
Founded in 2008 by two teens in recovery from anorexia, Project HEAL has become the largest nonprofit in the U.S. delivering prevention, treatment financing, and recovery support for people suffering from eating disorders.
Communities of HEALing is a brand new pilot program designed to explore the ways that peer support and mentorship can help individuals to fully recover from an eating disorder. The program includes weekly support groups in local communities, available 1:1 mentorship for those newly out of treatment from others who are in an active and full recovery, other facilitated experiences, and in some cases social support in the form of group outings like going to a movie together!
We are actively recruiting for mentors! Communities of HEALing Mentors are individuals who have suffered from an eating disorder, have been in full and active recovery for at least two years, and who are trained to provide peer support. Mentors are not clinicians, and Communities of HEALing is not a replacement for professional treatment.
The Communities of HEALing Mentor Training Program is a collaboration between Project HEAL and the Carolyn Costin Institute. The training is designed to ground mentors in the 8 Keys to Recovery, a framework developed by renowned clinician and eating disorder advocate Carolyn Costin, as well as gold standard practices for peer support, group/individual mentorship, and facilitation of our program.
Mentors make a commitment of about 5 hours per week for at least one year, which includes meeting with their mentee, helping to facilitate an open support group, participating in regular supervision, and completing any evaluative measures for the research team.
For more information and to apply to become a mentor, check out the Communities of HEALing page on our website.
