Title: Crisis and Safety Management in Peer-Based Settings
Presenters: John Burns, CRSW
Presentation Date: June 12, 2024
Presenter Bios: John Burns is a person with lived experience using drugs and as a person in recovery. He is the director of SOS Recovery Community Organization with recovery community centers in Rochester, Dover and Exeter, NH.  John founded Families Hoping and Coping in 2014, a peer-based family support group for family members and loved ones of those struggling with substance use disorder.  He prides himself most on being an outspoken advocate for people who use drugs, building recovery-oriented systems of care, and promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice for those marginalized who often are left without a voice and oppressed due to inhumane global, national and local drug policy.  

John earned his MBA from Southern NH University and is credentialed as a Certified Recovery Support Worker (CRSW) and CRSW Supervisor in NH.  He became a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers in 2021 and is involved in offering basic and advanced Motivational Interviewing workshops within the peer-recovery support service field several times a year. John is the board vice-chair for the NH Harm Reduction Coalition.  He also serves on the NH Drug Overdose Fatality Review Commission and on the executive committee for the Strafford County, New Hampshire Public Health Advisory Committee.