The Outreach and Education Department is responsible for community and public relations, internal and external education, and communications for Peer Support and Advocacy Network. The main goal of the department is to establish relationships within the community-at-large as well as mental health, business, corporate, foundation and civic communities by offering opportunities to promote mental health awareness, reduce stigma attached to mental health consumers, and to communicate the peer support concept and the process of recovery.

Guided by the direction of a 4-year Strategic Plan developed by the PSAN Board of Directors and Administrative Staff, the Outreach and Education endeavors will be achieved through the coordination of supportive efforts from PSAN staff, board, consumers, volunteers and the creation and implementation of a marketing plan, a development and fundraising plan, and programmatic plans targeted at the abovementioned audiences.

A marketing plan was developed and is being implemented and successfully achieving the current goals of PSAN. PSAN is being promoted through television, radio and print media. Publications are being designed and printed for use in public awareness and direct mail campaigns. PSAN staff members are developing professionally and participating in public speaking engagements and educating external audiences about PSAN's Mission, and Recovery, specifically. Internally, PSAN is actively seeking educational and informational opportunities to provide consumers with knowledge and empowerment to aid with their growth. These will be ongoing efforts.

Programmatic plans created to introduce PSAN to targeted audiences will open the door to opportunities to developing good working relationships within them all. Each audience plays a specific role with PSAN and those it serves. As PSAN grows in its role within the community, PSAN will become a more widely-known agency, its' message will become more understood, its' personnel will become more respected in the communities served, partnerships will be created, and PSAN will become more valuable as a service provider.