Solstice House Peer Respite

12/18/2025

Help us advance the rights of people in crisis!

This research is critical to understanding how people in crisis and people who receive mental health / substance use care services are impacted by mandated reporting, risk assessment and other practices that lead to involuntary commitment and losses of autonomy when navigating care.

See the below flyer for more information.

Email draker@uwstout.edu for more info about how to get involved.

Please circulate to your networks!

SOAR has an exciting announcement!

Riley Drake, Phd., Assistant Professor at UW-Stout's Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation, and Human Services is a researcher who's passionate about psychiatric abolition and radical alternatives to crisis. She approached SOAR to do an important research study.

This research is critical to understanding how people in crisis and people who receive mental health / substance use care services are impacted by mandated reporting, risk assessment and other practices that lead to involuntary commitment and losses of autonomy when navigating care.

See the below flyer for more information.

Email draker@uwstout.edu for more info about how to get involved.

Please circulate to your networks!

12/17/2025

If you're looking for ways to support us this holiday season, check out our Items Needed list!

Your generous donations will directly benefit our amazing peer community at Solstice House.☀️🩵

12/12/2025

Register here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/becoming-co-conspirators-a-workshop-for-mental-health-workers-healers-tickets-1977283400879?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

Holistic and Anti-Carceral Approaches to Mental Health and Crisis Response for Mental Health Workers

12/04/2025

Solstice House Peer Respite is hiring!

We are seeking a full-time Program Manager committed to fostering a welcoming and affirming environment where people feel seen, heard, and valued.

We are a crisis alternative program in Madison, Wisconsin committed to empowering individuals to navigate distress—without fear of non-consensual police involvement, psychiatric incarceration, and other losses of power and autonomy.

Peer respites are voluntary, short-term, overnight, home-like environments operated by peers (people with lived experience). We exist to support fellow peers who are experiencing crisis, emotional distress, sudden upheavals, or other life-interrupting events.

Requirements:
▪️Current CPS (Certified Peer Specialist) state certification.
▪️Strong understanding of peer support, harm reduction values, and community building.
▪️Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
▪️Skilled in conflict resolution, boundary setting, and interpersonal communication.

We offer:
▪️A flexible, compassionate, equity-focused work environment
▪️Comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and vision insurance (for full-time staff members)
▪️Paid time off (regardless of hours worked)
▪️Short-term disability coverage
▪️Employer-paid life insurance
▪️Employee assistance program
▪️401(k) match

About SOAR & Solstice House:
Since 1997, we’ve offered community-based care and support rooted in lived experience. The mission of Solstice House is to uphold choice, center voice, and uplift the self-determination of people with lived experience. We do this by providing peer-led, non-clinical, fully voluntary, community-based alternatives to crisis care.

Interested in joining our team? Please email your resume and cover letter to opportunities@soarcms.org.

Please share this post to help us reach more people in our community!

11/19/2025

Announcing another upcoming collaboration alongside Project LETS!🖤 https://projectlets.org/

❤️‍🔥Collective Care & Organizing Space for Psychiatric Abolition ✊🏽

Join Project LETS and collaborators for a grounding, processing, and organizing space for psychiatric abolition and cross movement solidarity. Together, we are weaving a lineage of Mad people, psychiatric survivors, and Disabled people who carry forward a vision of collective liberation, healing, and justice.

This free space is for those who are seeking connection, reflection, and nourishment while also building power and organizing. We recognize that so many of our people (especially multiply marginalized & Disabled folks) have been excluded from movement spaces due to inaccessibility and COVID denialism. We are committed to creating an environment where access, care, and interdependence are not afterthoughts, but the foundation of our work.

We gather in the spirit of resistance and imagination, to honor the survival and wisdom of our communities, and to chart pathways beyond carcerality, coercion, and psychiatric violence. This is an invitation to ground together, process together, and move together toward a liberatory future and shared reality grounded in psychiatric abolition and true care.

Small Group Options:

CLOSED SPACE FOR BLACK MAD FOLKS: Space for people of Black x African descent and lineage to speak to and hear from one another. We resist criminalization and discarding by making room for our wildest, maddest selves to process, grieve, rage, ritualize and organize. (with Nze Okoronta and Ngozi Alston)

CLOSED SPACE FOR BIPOC: Space for People of the Global Majority only where we will collectively build a safe(r) container to dive more deeply into our experiences and visions of psych liberation. (with Heena Sharma)

PLUGGING IN: Space for folks who want to take action but don’t know how to begin, and/or aren’t currently plugged in to projects, communities, or advocacy work. (with Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu and Leah Harris)

SHARING STRATEGIES: Space for folks who want to get together with other organizers / movement workers to chat through current projects or campaigns, sharing strategies, coalition building. (with Sarah Broas and dove)

🎯November 20th & December 17th from 6:00-8:00 PM EST on Zoom.

📅How to Register: Fill out this short registration form by November 19th: bit.ly/psychabolition

*The registration form will close 1 day prior to the event to ensure we can respond proactively to all access requests. We will be in touch with you to confirm your registration, or follow-up with any questions we have.

ACCESS REQUESTS
Share your access requests via the registration form.

11/16/2025

Who is a fit for Solstice House? 🛏️ 🩶 Who is peer respite for? We are Madison’s only Crisis Alternative.

11/16/2025

What is Solstice House? 🌻 What is a peer respite? 🏡 We are a crisis alternative based in voice, choice and self-determination.

Call (608) 244-5077 to ask about peer respite and explore how a crisis alternative can support you differently. We are Madison’s only peer respite!

11/13/2025

Calling all night owls! Solstice House Peer Respite will be starting a new drop-in style virtual peer support group, hosted by our 3rd shifters. This group is open to anyone located in the US (you do not need to live in Wisconsin or be local to Solstice House).

Midnight Resistance is a late-night peer support space. We gather after dark to offer one another presence, care, and solidarity—without judgment. Whether you can’t sleep, are looking for companionship, or want to share what’s on your heart, you’re welcome here. Together we hold space for real conversation, rest, and resilience in the quiet hours of the night. 💜

Midnight Resistance will be held 3x weekly-- Tues, Thurs & Sat evenings.

To sign up and join:
Email Nze Okoronta at: nzeo@soarcms.org
~ Or call (608) 886-9735 if you have any questions.

Once we have a list going, a scheduling poll will be sent out. We will then send out zoom invitations, based on times that work best for all.🌛

11/12/2025

Solstice House Peer Respite is hiring!

We are a crisis alternative program in Madison, Wisconsin committed to empowering individuals to navigate distress– without fear of non-consensual police involvement, psychiatric incarceration, and other losses of power and autonomy.

Peer respites are voluntary, short-term, overnight, home-like environments operated by peers (people with lived experience). We exist to support fellow peers who are experiencing crisis, emotional distress, sudden upheavals, or other life-interrupting events.

We are seeking dedicated and consistent individuals who are aligned with our mission and values to join our incredible program.

Requirements:
▪️Identify as a person with lived experience
▪️General understanding of peer support & harm reduction values
▪️Strong skills in conflict resolution, boundary setting, and interpersonal communication

We offer:
▪️A flexible, compassionate, equity-focused work environment
▪️Comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and vision insurance (for full-time staff members)
▪️Paid time off (regardless of hours worked)
▪️Short-term disability coverage
▪️Employer-paid life insurance
▪️Employee assistance program
▪️401(k) match

About SOAR & Solstice House:
Since 1997, we’ve offered community-based care and support rooted in lived experience. The mission of Solstice House is to uphold choice, center voice, and uplift the self-determination of people with lived experience. We do this by providing peer-led, non-clinical, fully voluntary, community-based alternatives to crisis care.

Interested in joining our team? Please email your resume and cover letter to opportunities@soarcms.org.

Please share this post to help us reach more people in our community!

09/30/2025

Life can be stressful — but you don’t have to navigate it alone. 💜

This fall, SOAR is hosting an in-person group designed to help you build resilience, find clarity, and feel more at ease. Check out the flyer for more details!

09/24/2025

Q***r Alternatives to Su***de (Q-Alt2Su) has a new name...and is now virtual!
💻🌈

Join us to connect and build community with other q***r folks who get it.

Labels and diagnoses are not important — just come as you are.

💙 No cops or clinicians
🖤 No mandated reporting

To sign up, email Rylee Jenich, Solstice House Program Manager, at ryleej@soarcms.org.

See you there!

08/13/2025

Join us this Sunday to celebrate Madison's vibrant LGBTQIA2P+ community and explore the diverse resources and support systems available, along with our community partner, OutReach LGBTQ Community Center!

Visit the Solstice House table for more information about our peer respite services. Discover our ongoing peer-run support circles, which are facilitated by experienced leaders in the non-carceral peer space.

We look forward to seeing you there! 💜💚💙💛