Foundational Principles

We recognize lived and living experience as essential expertise and leadership. People with firsthand experience of mental health challenges, substance use, trauma, and recovery hold knowledge that cannot be replicated through traditional academic or clinical training.

At PRCH, lived expertise is not advisory—it is embedded in research design, teaching, workforce development, and systems consultation. We center, compensate, and support leaders with lived experience in decision-making and organizational leadership roles.

Peer support is foundational to this commitment. We advance peer-delivered services and workforce development models that emphasize mutuality, shared learning, and relational accountability. Our work includes training, mentoring, and supporting peers as well as community health and outreach workers as leaders within behavioral health and community settings. By strengthening community-rooted leadership, we build workforces that reflect the strengths, cultures, and lived realities of the communities they serve.

By valuing experiential knowledge alongside academic and clinical expertise, we promote innovation, accountability, and meaningful systems change.

Recovery is both a personal journey and a framework for transforming how care, research, and leadership are structured. We promote recovery-oriented and person-centered approaches that emphasize hope, self-determination, relational support, cultural humility, and shared power.

Person-centered practice means recognizing individuals as whole people—honoring their goals, strengths, identities, and community connections rather than defining them by diagnoses or service needs. In practice, this includes collaborative planning, shared decision-making, and leadership pathways that elevate individual voice and choice.

In research, person-centered approaches shape how we design studies, measure outcomes, and translate findings into action. We prioritize outcomes that matter to individuals and communities—not solely systems-level metrics. Through leadership development, organizational consultation, applied research, and training initiatives, PRCH supports institutions in operationalizing recovery principles, shifting from compliance-driven models to cultures that genuinely empower people and communities to thrive.

We advance a vision of recovery grounded in citizenship — the right to belong, to contribute, and to access the roles, rights, responsibilities, resources, and relationships that support full participation in community life.

Recovery is strengthened when people are not merely recipients of services but recognized as valued members of their communities. Our research and partnerships focus on expanding opportunities for meaningful civic, social, economic, and cultural participation. We work to remove barriers that limit inclusion and to cultivate environments where every person is recognized as a citizen with dignity, voice, and value.

Lasting recovery requires equitable access to housing, employment, education, healthcare, and fair treatment under the law. Structural inequities—including poverty, racism, stigma, and discrimination—directly shape behavioral health and overall wellbeing.

PRCH works to identify and transform systemic barriers that limit opportunity. Through research, workforce development, technical assistance, and policy engagement, we promote strategies that address social determinants of health and expand pathways to stability, economic mobility, and self-determination. Our goal is not only improved services, but more just and responsive systems.

Recovery is deeply shaped by culture, identity, faith, and community traditions. We honor the diverse ways individuals and communities define healing, resilience, and meaning.

PRCH collaborates with faith-based organizations, cultural leaders, and community-defined networks to ensure that research, programs, and workforce development reflect the histories, values, and strengths of the communities they serve. We approach this work with humility and partnership, recognizing that sustainable systems change must be culturally grounded and community-defined.

Research and practice are strongest when conducted with communities, not merely about them. At PRCH, community-based participatory research (CBPR) and community-engaged research and practice (CEnR) guide how we design studies, develop programs, train leaders, and inform policy.

Our approach emphasizes authentic community connection, shared decision-making, co-design, and co-production. People directly affected by the issues we address are partners throughout the entire process—from identifying priorities and shaping research questions to interpreting findings and implementing solutions. Engagement is not a single phase of a project; it is foundational to how we work.

Community-engaged research and practice extend beyond formal studies to include workforce development, peer support training, technical assistance, leadership academies, and policy consultation. By grounding our work in long-term relationships and shared accountability, we ensure that our efforts are relevant, rigorous, actionable, and responsive to community-defined priorities.

Co-production strengthens trust, improves scientific integrity, and increases the likelihood that research and practice lead to sustainable systems transformation. At PRCH, community partnership is not an add-on—it is central to all that we do.

Together, these principles guide PRCH’s commitment to advancing recovery, strengthening citizenship, elevating lived expertise, and transforming behavioral health systems through rigorous research, community partnership, and leadership development.