peer support specialist courses have been offered by numerous state, nonprofit and for-profit entities such as Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, PRO-ACT (Pennsylvania Recovery Organization-Achieving Community Together), The McShin Foundation, Tennessee Certified Peer Recovery Specialist Training and Program, Appalachian Consulting Group, and the State of New York's Office of Addiction Services. PARfessionals has developed the first internationally approved online training program for peer support specialists in the fields of mental health and addiction recovery. In addition, numerous for-profit firms offer peer support specialist training. Training includes courses on the ethics of a recovery coach, recovery coaching core competencies, clinical theories as stages of change, motivational interviewing, and co-occurring disorders. Core competencies Adapted for the recovery support specialist by William L. White: Outreach worker: Identifies and engages hard-to-reach individuals; offers living proof of the transformative power of recovery and makes recovery attractive. Motivator: Exhibits faith in client's capacity for change, encourages and celebrates their recovery achievements, and mobilizes internal and external recovery. Resources: Encourages the client's self-advocacy and economic self-sufficiency. Ally and confidant: Genuinely cares and listens to the client, can be trusted with confidences, and can identify areas of potential growth. Truth-teller: Provides feedback on the recovery progress. Identifies areas which have presented or may present roadblocks to continued abstinence. Role model and mentor: Offers their life as living proof of the transformative power of recovery and provides stage-appropriate recovery education. Planner: Facilitates the transition from a professionally directed treatment plan to a client-developed and directed personal recovery plan. Assists in structuring daily activities around this plan. Problem solver: Helps resolve personal and environmental obstacles to recovery. Resource broker: Is knowledgeable of information, for individuals or for their families, about sources of sober housing, recovery conducive employment, health and social services, and recovery support. Matches the individuals with particular support groups or twelve-step meetings. Monitor or companion: When the client will be best served with regular, around the clock attendance, or attendance for a set number of hours per day, the client may need a sober companion. This companion can be available for travel in and out of the country. The sober companion processes each client’s response to professional services and mutual aid exposures to enhance engagement, reduce attrition, and resolve problems in the relationship. The companion provides early re-intervention and recovery re-initiation services. Tour guide: Introduces newcomers into the culture of recovery; provides an orientation to recovery roles, rules,