Jennifer White works on her master’s in psychology while holding down a part-time job with Western Tidewater Community Services Board, but there was a time when everyday activities seemed impossible.

Between 2005 and 2012, the schizophrenia sufferer was a consumer of her current employer’s services.

“I was isolating myself away from people,” White said. “Friends and family members were having a hard time communicating with me.”

While recovering from her mental health condition, White completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Phoenix, where she now studies for the advanced degree.

“When I came here, I realized I wasn’t alone with my situation,” she said. “It really opened me up to become who I wanted to be.”

White started working for the board this year as a foundation peer support specialist with its Peer Mentoring program.

Board Child and Family Services Supervisor Brandon Rodgers said the program was kicked off with “consumer support funds,” raised in response to evidence showing it helps both mentors and the mentored recover from behavioral health disorders.

It has since been working toward self-sustainability, he said. To that end, a second fundraising yard sale is planned for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the board’s location at 5268 Godwin Blvd. Dec. 7 is the rain date.

Items have been donated, and all proceeds will directly support the funding of peer mentors like White, Rodgers said.

Mentors lodge an application, undergo screening, and their training is designed to accommodate any disabilities.

The initial intake identified individuals who had already completed training by advocacy agencies like the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Rodgers said.

With mentoring, he said, the board’s consumers can gain work experience in the field of behavioral health, and even follow White’s lead by pursuing professional certification.

“They are able to obtain gainful employment to reduce their reliance on disability or public benefits,” Rodgers said.

Currently, he says, the board’s peer mentors operate a weekly peer support group at the Franklin Mental Health Center, and daily peer support groups at the psychosocial rehabilitation program.

Consumer engagement services are offered to individuals in psychosocial rehabilitation, including phone calls and letters to individuals when out of session, and welcoming activities with new enrollees.

“By offering these services, peer mentors have an opportunity to pay forward things learned in their own recovery, allowing them to reach the highest level of recovery,” Rodgers said.

White, who divides her time between Franklin and Suffolk, says her job is “very rewarding.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s very rewarding to know that I can bring something to someone’s day.”

William Henry Grant Jr., diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder bipolar type, said the program helped him overcome depression and “not just stay at home and sit around and do nothing.

“It gives me the chance to meet a lot of people that are like me.”