Recovery Oriented Change Initiative

Announcing two no-cost programs to support mental health organizations in Texas!The Recovery Exchange (TREx) is an 18-month learning collaborative, designed for agency teams that are ready to plan and implement recovery-oriented change projects, offering both virtual and in-person activities.The Learning Network (TLN) is an 8-month online, live learning series, available to any staff members (or groups) interested in better understanding how to provide person-centered, recovery-oriented care.

• Program Overview
• Application Preview
• Apply Now!

Application & Selection
There is one application form to be considered for either or both of the two programs. It is anticipated that participant selection for TREx will be more competitive due to the intensity of support and available resources. While The Learning Network can accommodate more participants, some applicants may be asked to take part in the next cohort (beginning January 2026), if there is an overwhelming interest.General Eligibility & Application Requirements
    - All participating organizations must provide MH services in Texas.
    - Each team must represent a mental health agency that receives state funding.
    - TREx applicants must form teams of 4-6 individuals (representing one agency or coalition).
    - TLN applicants can be individuals or groups from one organization
    - An organization may submit multiple TREx applications if teams and projects are distinct.
    - Persons may apply (and be accepted) for both programs.
    - Each applicant/applicant team must agree to take part in all required activities.

Overview of Application and Program Timeline

• Program Overview
• Application Preview
• Apply Now!

The Recovery Exchange (TREx)

The Recovery Exchange is an 18-month, intensive learning collaborative, designed for clinical mental health organizational teams ready to plan and implement recovery-oriented change projects. Organizations may choose to pursue projects that involve such changes as improving Person-Centered Recovery Planning, Peer Support Services Program Development (e.g., supervision, hiring and recruitment, job descriptions), or building capacity to facilitate Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAPⓇ). Participating teams will pursue specific, recovery-oriented change projects with consultation and training support. Team-based application will be open January 15th - February 12th.

Learn More About the ProgramThis video will tell you a bit more about the TREx program.

Learn More About the ApplicationThe application is designed to let you practice some of the skills that you'll be using if you join the TREx program. In this video, we tell you a bit more about what to expect.

• Program Overview
• Application Preview
• Apply Now!

The Learning Network

The Learning Network is an 8-month learning series for organizations to increase their knowledge and familiarity with recovery-oriented, person-centered mental healthcare. Each month, participants will take part in a 1.5 hour learning session online. Topics will include introductions to recovery-oriented care, Person-Centered Recovery Planning, Peer Support Services, Staff Wellness, and Implementing Change. We recommend participants take advantage of the Learning Network as an organizational team, but this is not a requirement. Details about the program will be available December 18th, and individual participants will get access to the short application January 15th - February 12th.

• Program Overview
• Application Preview
• Apply Now!

Meet the Team

As a clinical social worker using her lived experience with mental health challenges to promote a more recovery-oriented culture of behavioral health service delivery and person-centered practices, Amanda acts as a unique complement and partner to national peer specialist experts, like Amy Pierce. This intentional clinician/peer specialist partnership models the kind of mutually beneficial professional relationships that are happening throughout clinical agencies with peer support staff who are integrated among multi-disciplinary teams and continue to occupy their intended non-clinical, professional roles. Amanda is recognized as a national expert in person centered recovery planning (PCRP), a practice that is required broadly by many regulatory agencies and acknowledges the responsibility of clinical providers to engage in person-centered, family-centered, respectful care. In these programs, Amanda will serve as a facilitator, trainer, and consultant by drawing on her field experience in the Texas behavioral health system. Amanda is also a WRAPⓇ facilitator.Amanda is the owner of Sidecar Consulting, and previously served as the Recovery Institute Director at Via Hope. She worked as a clinician, supervisor, and program administrator during her 13 years at Austin State Hospital. She has called Austin home since moving there in 2000 to attend University of Texas for her Masters in Social Work.

Amy’s level of subject matter expertise is unparalleled in Texas. She has been working in the Peer Movement in our State for nearly two decades, having started the first peer support program in the state hospitals and one of the first people certified to deliver peer support in Texas. Now, as an accomplished resource on the implementation of peer services and other recovery-oriented practices, she routinely delivers training and consultative support to both peer and clinical field-based professionals who are working to better understand the peer specialist role and improve the quality of behavioral health service programs. Amy understands and can support others about the complexities related to occupying a formal leadership position as a peer specialist, having worked as the program coordinator for a transitional peer residential housing project and a supervisor for other peer workers at an LMHA.Currently, Amy serves in the role of Technical Assistance Strategy Advisor at Achara Consulting. Prior to that, she worked as the Recovery Institute Deputy Director at Via Hope, where she led learning collaboratives that focused on peer services, supervision, and recovery-oriented programs. She has been the CEO of Resiliency Unleashed, an international training and consulting company, gaining a deep understanding of change dynamics across systems and around the globe. Similar to Amanda, but more heavily weighted toward the other type of wellness planning, Amy regularly acts as a PCRP trainer, but is also a time-honored Advanced Level WRAPⓇ facilitator, able to provide Seminar II “trainings for trainers” and coach people new to facilitating WRAPⓇ. Amy also provides a highly impactful rights-oriented perspective in her consultative work, having served as the Chair of the PAIMI Council in Texas and currently on the Disability Rights Texas Board of Directors.

Anna is a consultant specializing in participatory approaches to leading change, strategy development, and implementing recovery-oriented, person-centered practices. Before founding Alpinista Consulting in 2014, Anna served as Deputy Director of Via Hope, designing and managing the Recovery Institute and other collaborative learning initiatives that integrate implementation science and participatory change methods, helping organizational teams work with complexity while implementing practices like peer support and person-centered planning. In recent years, she has continued to consult on program design and evaluation for a variety of recovery-focused, person-centered learning collaboratives.She is also a Person-Centered Recovery Planning, Demystifying Peer Support trainer, and has had a leadership role in initiatives with a variety of organizations focused on promoting mental health in communities across Texas. These include the Episcopal Health Foundation Congregational Engagement Learning Network to Promote Mental Health (2018 to present); Hogg Foundation Advancing Recovery in Texas Learning Network (2016-2019); and St. David’s Foundation Libraries for Health with RAND and Via Hope (2022-2023). Anna has particular expertise in, and teaching others to, use participatory methods within complex systems change. She has worked with people all over the world and across domains as they learn participatory action research and facilitative methods and will bring these approaches to these programs.