The Ferns Peer Respite Council of Montgomery County
Mission Statement: Our peer-run respite provides a welcoming space for people who feel overwhelmed, to have time, space, and relationships that support their self-determination, healing, and growth, recognizing that people are the experts on themselves.
The Ferns Peer Respite Council is a grass-roots organization evaluating the need for and seeking to establish peer respite in our region. HopeWorx will serve as the fiduciary for The Ferns. The Ferns will be a community for learning, healing, and growing, recognizing that distress is a common human experience. For more information about the Ferns Peer Respite Council and this initiative, please contact one of our council co-chairs:
Penny Johnson, pjohnson@hopeworxinc.org or Kim Renninger, krenninger@hopeworxinc.org
Penny Johnson, pjohnson@hopeworxinc.org or Kim Renninger, krenninger@hopeworxinc.org
What is Peer Respite?
Peer respite provides a welcoming space for people who feel overwhelmed, to have time, space, and relationships that support their self-determination, healing, and growth. We recognize that people are the experts on themselves. Guests stay for one to seven days in a home-like environment. Peer respite staff have learned new responses from our own crises and are ready to compassionately engage as equals with guests as the guests consider how they want their lives to be different. We offer honest, caring, mutually responsible relationships. Peer respite is different from hospitalization or crisis residential services, and provides an alternative where distress is viewed through the lens of being a common human experience instead of pathology; guests find meaning and growth in the experience.