Peer Support Supervisor
Tawnia Nelson, Certified Peer Counselor, Peer Support Leadership, and trainer. CVAB certified, FCS for Housing and Employment/ PCE University of Washington. Certified in Wrap, Seeking Safety, and through the Recovery Coach Academy.
Tawnia was born in Portland, Oregon, and was raised in sunny California. She is a devoted mother of three beautiful adult children. Throughout her life she has been a strong advocate and caregiver for the people she loved most in the world. It came as no surprise that she would start her next career with those same skills.
Tawnia Nelson has been a Certified Peer Counselor for over 7 years. She began her Peer career with Multi-Care Behavioral Health, in the Health Homes Program (CCM) with focus on intensive care coordination for individuals state identified as high-cost, high-risk Medicare-Medicaid enrollees. Tawnia focused on the reduction of disproportionate costs and emphasized on improved health outcomes by increased community coordination and reducing major gaps in services. In this position she provided in-home and community outreach, connecting individuals with service providers in mental health, substance use treatment, dental care, and other supportive services.
This work resulted in a comprehensive list of Pierce County resources that covered basic human services to quality-of-life care, which later was recognized as an e-resource utilized across the organization. Tawnia furthered her career with Multi-Care by switching gears toward community mental health. In this role she benefited from the guidance and direction of her supervisor and began specializing her skills working with people living with Schizophrenia, Autism, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Domestic Violence. This worked launched her career into an informal approach to behavioral health.
Tawnia completed her journey with Multi-Care and shifted her attention to substance use treatment. She joined We Care Daily Clinics in 2020 and began working on the daunting task of building a peer program in a Medicated Treatment Facility. Aligned with the experiential knowledge and education she began studying the census and the needs of the population. She focused her attention over each departments interworking’s and dynamics.
Tawnia participated in state mapping of the organization and helped to develop policies and procedures throughout. She focused her with Patient Services and Transportation, being instrumental in trauma informed care, cultural appropriateness, and a stigma free focused environment. Armed with extensive data Tawnia began to build a program that focused once again on basic human needs and quality of life care. Through a three-tiered process, she cultivated outreach with community partners, encampments, and events. These three levels of intervention connected our Peer Support team to deliverable outcomes.
Tawnia also felt the importance of recovering gaps of knowledge and maturity as a supportive approach to education. Through her lived experience she created a 52-unit curriculum with 9 fields of study. The classes quickly developed into a university style learning experience with unit completion and certification and curriculum graduation.
Tawnia learned over the course of her life that her spontaneity and creativity led her to some of the most exciting adventures from hiking, white water rafting, to program development. Which was clear when she found Recovery Beyond. She is excited to be apart of building a program that is forever going to change the future of recovery and create an environment of hope through action.