PEER-LED RECOVERY SUPPORT IN COLORADO
Peer Recovery Support
SafeSide is a peer-led recovery management organization. Our peer professionals use lived experience, training, and recovery-focused skills to help people navigate the challenges that come with building and sustaining recovery.
Peer support is different from therapy or clinical treatment. It is practical, relationship-based support from someone who understands many of the realities of recovery and can walk alongside you as you identify goals, work through barriers, connect with resources, and take the next step.
Sometimes that means talking through a difficult day. Sometimes it means helping someone prepare for an appointment, find a resource, navigate a transition, rebuild routines, or stay connected when life feels unstable.
Peer Support Is in Our DNA.
Peer support is not something SafeSide added to a list of services. It is part of how our organization was built and how we approach recovery.
We believe lived experience can create a different kind of connection. A peer may understand the frustration of navigating systems, rebuilding relationships, finding stability, managing setbacks, or simply trying to figure out what comes next.
The role of a peer is not to direct someone’s recovery. It is to support people as they identify their own goals, build on their strengths, make informed choices, and develop greater confidence and independence.
What Can a Peer Help With?
Recovery can affect many parts of life at once. SafeSide peers provide practical, relationship-based support around the goals, barriers, and next steps that matter to the individual.
Recovery Goals
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Goal-setting and accountability
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Recovery planning
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Building healthy routines
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Working through setbacks
Resources & Navigation
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Treatment and recovery resources
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Housing and community resources
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Benefits and service navigation
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Connecting with appropriate providers
Life Stability
Connection & Self-Advocacy
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Employment and education goals
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Transportation planning
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Daily responsibilities
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Building practical life skills
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Healthy relationships and boundaries
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Community connection
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Preparing for appointments
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Learning to advocate for your needs
Support Through Critical Transitions
Some of the most vulnerable moments in recovery happen between places; leaving jail, entering detox, completing treatment, moving into sober living, leaving a shelter, or trying to find stable housing.
SafeSide peers help people navigate those transitions by working through barriers, helping coordinate the next step, and creating stronger connections to treatment, housing, recovery services, and community resources.
Our goal is to make the next step more than a phone number or address. When appropriate, peer support can include warm handoffs, practical coordination, and support getting from one setting to the next.
Peer Support Looks Different for Everyone
Recovery is personal. SafeSide peer support is built around the individual; their goals, strengths, challenges, and next steps.
Your Goals Lead the Work
Peer support is person-directed. We start with what matters to you and help you identify practical steps toward recovery, stability, and greater independence.
Lived Experience Matters
SafeSide peers use their own lived experience appropriately to create connection, reduce isolation, and help people navigate challenges that can be difficult to understand from the outside.
Practical Support Matters
Sometimes peer support means talking through a difficult day. Other times it means helping navigate resources, prepare for an appointment, make a connection, or work through a barrier that is getting in the way.
You Stay in Control of Your Recovery
Hear Jeff share his experience working with a SafeSide peer coach and what peer support meant for him.
Meet Jeff
A peer does not decide your goals or tell you what recovery has to look like. The role is to help you understand options, build on your strengths, and make informed choices about your next steps.
Questions About Peer Support?
Get answers about what peer support is, how SafeSide peers can help, transition support, and what to expect when you connect with a peer.
Q: Is peer support the same as therapy?
No. Peer support is a non-clinical recovery service built around lived experience, practical support, connection, and self-directed goals. It can complement therapy, treatment, medical care, and other services.
Q: Do I have to live in a SafeSide sober living home to receive peer support?
No. SafeSide’s peer recovery services extend beyond our sober living homes. Available services and eligibility may vary, so the best first step is to connect with our team.
Q: Can a peer help me connect to treatment, housing, or other resources?
Yes. Resource navigation and transition support can be part of peer services. A peer may help identify options, make connections, work through barriers, and navigate the next step.
Q: Can peer support help during transitions like leaving jail, detox, or treatment?
Yes. Transitions are an important part of SafeSide’s peer-support approach. Peers can help organize next steps, connect with appropriate services and resources, and support continuity as someone moves from one setting to another.
Q: Does Medicaid cover peer support services?
Health First Colorado, Colorado’s Medicaid program, covers certain behavioral health peer support services when eligibility, service, provider, and program requirements are met. Coverage depends on the individual and the services being provided, so our team can help determine what options may be available.