Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Padron. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

I received my State of Texas Certified Peer Specialist Certification in 2007 from DBSA National. It changed my life. My trainers were Larry Fricks, Ike Powell and Beth Filson. Their teaching me practical learnings about Peer Supports working with adult mental health and substance use. Primarily it sparked my love of service and giving back to others around me who are high/at-risk populations. I work primarily with the imminently shelterless, incarcerated, hospitalized either voluntarily or involuntarily commmitted and placed in a 72 hour hold. As a person with shared life experience, I know what it’s like. I know what to do to get out of it now. The only difference between me and others who are struggling with life is that I managed to make it out of the other end of the tunnel. Many are still in the mud to their hips. That’s my population. I prefer crisis investment management, working with remediating intergenerational individual and community traumas, and US BIPOC populations inherently.

SARS COVID19 changed my life. When Wuhan fell in March of 2020, I’d already suffered pneumonia and several respiratory infections with the Grady Hospital staff not knowing (what) it was at the time in November of 2019. I’d taken Marta down from East Point to walk to Grady first hand for their walk-in immediate urgent care and took the train home. I immediately took penicllin for the cough, the antibiotics and went to bed. In March of 2020 Celia Brown, Founder of Surviving Race: The Intersection of Injustice, Disability and Human Rights immediately mounted the Community Care SARS COVID19 and CRISIS PEER NETWORK that was entirely voluntary. At our peak, we sported some 45 programs. Within 3 months, we had logged over 15,000 minutes of dialogue to rid personal and community isolation due to CoVid19.

I work Probono for Surviving Race out of love for advocacy and action geared response initiatives nationally. We are hosting the Dialogues & Retreat 2022 on August 28 – September 1, 2022 in Historic Savannah Georgia. For more information about what we’re doing at Dialogues 22, check out:

https://Pandemicwellness.guide and the Surviving Race hallmark digital site at https://covid19careguide.net

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I an a person with lived experience. I started out as a CPS in the State of Georgia (2014) and State of Texas (2007). My work maxed out and I disliked the ornamental nature of a CPS in crisis. I did nothing. I could do nothing. I decided to pursue my MSW to get into Social Work to do more. I completed my MSW at the Valdosta State University Department of Human Services Division of Social Work from 2019-2022. I’m excited.

My ideas and sole framework is that I am inherently a Peer. My service is give back out of thanks and counting my blessings for the numerous individuals in my life who helped navigate me through rough waters and to light outside the other end of the tunnel of despair.

I prefer developing new product for Behavioral Health that has a basic functional application for Peer Supports deliverables via mHealth and mDigital tools. I founded the JMP Health Integration Innovation LLC in the State of Georgia and plan to roll andn scale the US Peer SARS COVID19 and Crisis Peer Telehealth Network this Fall 2022 based in Atlanta.

I also am a Creative with ART+ For Social Justice and am the designer for all of Surviving Race; The Intersection of Injustice, Disability and Human Rights. I also design a myriad of social media memes and saturate the market with image/sound. I paint acrylic on any surface and will be picking up with Atlanta this August when I arrive back in the Metro from Valdosta.

You can see ART+ at jennifer-padron.pixels.com and https://facebook.com/jenpadronimagery

I’m most proud of myself for recently completing my Master of Social Work and work as a Social Worker in Atlanta.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

1.) Perseverence; 2.) Vision
3.) You’ve got to trust your Gut
4.) Retain Hope for your Dream
5.) Chase your dream
6.) Manifest in real-time of what’s in your head
7.) Just do it
8.) Stay Stubborn to get that prize you’re chasing that is yours to revel in success
9.) Stay Kind and remember why you got in this business in the first place
10.) Stop and smell the roses

Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.

I sold my nonprofit organization, The Hope Project, to a colleague from State of Texas Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling days. It was dormant and he called me out of the blue. He wanted the name. He wanted the brand. I sold it to him and he is doing work with US Veterans and Service men and women nationwide now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://covid19careguide.net
• Instagram: @ Jen Padron
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/jenpadron
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/jenpadron
• Twitter: #jennifermpadron
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdoH2xA0TA21_B6dpfWVuyg
• Other: https://facebook.com/jenpadronimagery https://jennifer-padron.pixels.com

Image Credits
Jennifer Maria Padron (2022) Self-portrait; Art+ for Social Justice (2020-2022), original designs.