PAVE Pathways: Continuing Education Kits, Built by People Who Lived It
The PAVE Pathways catalog spans 225 continuing education topics across nine practice domains. Each kit is a self-contained training package with a facilitator guide, participant workbook, slide deck, and post-test, written for peer specialists and the behavioral health and public health teams that supervise them. Kits are designed to be delivered as-is or adapted to an organization's existing training calendar and documentation requirements.
Available now
LifeSync and Purpose
What Is LifeSync?
Finding the Place Where Who You Are Meets How You Live
This complete, facilitator-ready training kit introduces PAVE's purpose-alignment framework, showing how to find harmony between who a person is, what they love, and how they live day to day. It adapts the Ikigai model for peer-led growth rather than corporate goal setting, and frames purpose as an ongoing practice of alignment across personal values, professional skills, and community impact. Grounded in positive psychology, purpose-in-life research, and longevity studies. Written in plain, warm language for adult learners, including people in recovery and people returning from incarceration who are now doing this work.
Understanding Survival, Building Trauma-Informed Support
Most people who struggle with substances are carrying pain that started long before the first use. This complete, facilitator-ready training kit helps frontline staff, peer leaders, and justice-impacted program teams understand how trauma and chronic stress sensitize the brain's threat-detection systems, why substance use so often works as an adaptive way to regulate overwhelming emotional pain, and how to build support around the three core trauma-informed principles of safety, choice, and empowerment. Grounded in SAMHSA, NIDA, the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study, and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Written in plain, warm language for adult learners, including people in active recovery and people returning from incarceration.
Shame is one of the strongest forces keeping people stuck in substance use cycles, and it is one of the least directly addressed in most programs. This complete, facilitator-ready training kit helps peer specialists, counselors, and reentry staff teach the difference between "I did something bad" and "I am bad," show how shame drives secrecy, isolation, and return to use, and practice cognitive tools and self-forgiveness steps that disarm self-stigma. Grounded in SAMHSA, NIDA, CCAR, and the research base on shame, guilt, and stigma in recovery. Written in plain, warm language for adult learners, including people in active recovery and people returning from incarceration.
The people doing the supporting carry a load nobody talks about. This complete, facilitator-ready training kit helps peer specialists, recovery coaches, caregivers, and frontline staff recognize the early warning signs of compassion fatigue, tell the difference between healthy empathy and absorbing other people's pain, and build steady practices for peer debriefing, reflection, and firm emotional boundaries. Grounded in SAMHSA, NIDA, CCAR, and the research base on secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Written in plain, warm language for adult learners, including people in recovery and people returning from incarceration who are now doing this work.
Building Trust First: Community Engagement for Programs People Actually Show Up To
Why Trust Comes Before Outreach, and How to Earn It
This complete, facilitator-ready training kit teaches outreach and engagement staff how to build the kind of trust that turns a flyer into a full room, especially with communities that have been let down by outside organizations before. It treats trust as something earned through consistency and follow-through, not something assumed because an organization means well, and it gives practical, low-cost ways to meet people where they are. Built on community engagement and community-based participatory research guidance, and written in plain, warm language for adult learners, including peer specialists, outreach workers, and people in recovery or returning from incarceration who are now doing this work.
Finding and Winning Small Grants: Resource Development for Grassroots Programs
A Peer-Led Approach to Funding Real Community Work
This complete, facilitator-ready training kit gives peer-led organizations without a dedicated development team a clear, step-by-step process for finding, applying for, and managing small grants that fund real community work. It treats grant writing as a learnable skill rather than a mystery reserved for people with advanced degrees, and it is honest about the paperwork and follow-through required after the money arrives. Built on established funder guidance and nonprofit capacity-building research, and written in plain, warm language for adult learners, including peer specialists, grassroots organizers, and people in recovery or returning from incarceration who are now running or supporting programs.
From Peer to Leader: Growing Into Leadership Without Losing Your Roots
Mentorship Skills for Peer Specialists Stepping Into Their First Leadership Role
This complete, facilitator-ready training kit supports peer specialists and frontline staff who are stepping into supervisory or mentorship roles for the first time, often without any formal management training. It treats the shift from being a peer among peers to holding a leadership role as an identity change that deserves real preparation, not just a new title, and it is honest that carrying responsibility for others can put a leader's own recovery and wellbeing at risk if they do not protect it. Built on established peer supervision, mentorship, and workforce development guidance, and written in warm, plain language for adult learners, including people in recovery or returning from incarceration who are now stepping into these roles.
Measuring What Matters: Simple Evaluation for Programs That Don't Have a Data Team
Tracking Outcomes and Telling Your Program's Real Story Without a Statistics Degree
This complete, facilitator-ready training kit gives frontline staff and program leads a plain-language way to track outcomes and tell their program's real story, without needing a statistics background or expensive software. It draws a clear line between counting activity and measuring impact, and it treats data collection as a habit the team can actually sustain, not a burden bolted on to satisfy a funder. Built on established nonprofit evaluation and outcomes measurement guidance, and written in warm, plain language for adult learners, including peer specialists, program coordinators, and people in recovery or returning from incarceration who are now running or supporting programs.
Honoring Survivors, Building Whole-Person Wellness
More than half of people living with diagnosed HIV in the United States are now age 50 or older. This complete, facilitator-ready training kit helps frontline staff and peer leaders recognize the medical, cognitive, and emotional realities of aging with HIV, including AIDS Survivor Syndrome, and apply PAVE's R.A.C.E. framework and the MIPA principle to build programs that honor long-term survivors as experts, not afterthoughts. Grounded in HIV.gov, NIH HIVinfo, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
One representative topic from each of the nine practice domains, in development now. These previews show the shape of the kits being built next.
AddictionComing Soon
Understanding Cravings
A practical look at how cravings function in the brain and body, and how to navigate them without automatic reaction.
ADD-1.2 · In development
HIV and Chronic IllnessComing Soon
Living Well With HIV
Shifts focus from medical management to designing a vibrant, joyful life centered on wellness, hope, and personal growth.
HIV-3.23 · In development
See all available kits
Pick a practice domain to see the 25 topics inside it, each with its learning objective and core focus areas.
GrantCraft and Resource Development
25 topics
Featured kit, ready to order
Finding and Winning Small Grants: Resource Development for Grassroots Programs
A Peer-Led Approach to Funding Real Community Work
This complete, facilitator-ready training kit gives peer-led organizations without a dedicated development team a clear, step-by-step process for finding, applying for, and managing small grants that fund real community work. It treats grant writing as a learnable skill rather than a mystery reserved for people with advanced degrees, and it is honest about the paperwork and follow-through required after the money arrives. Built on established funder guidance and nonprofit capacity-building research, and written in plain, warm language for adult learners, including peer specialists, grassroots organizers, and people in recovery or returning from incarceration who are now running or supporting programs.
Grant money does not all come from the same place, and each type of funder plays by different rules. This kit maps the full funding landscape a small agency might tap into, from federal agencies down to family foundations, so staff can see the whole picture before choosing where to spend their limited time. It helps agencies match their mission, size, and capacity to the funder types most likely to say yes.
Learning objective: Learn the different types of grant funding available and how they differ from one another.
What skills you will learn: Federal, state, local, private foundation, and corporate funding streams, and how each one typically operates.
How this applies in the field: Any agency can use this map to focus its limited grant-seeking time on the funders most likely to actually fund its work.
Coming SoonGCR-6.3
How to Read and Deconstruct an RFP
A Request for Proposals can run dozens of pages, and one missed line can disqualify an otherwise strong application. This kit breaks an RFP down section by section, teaching staff to decode funder language, spot hidden requirements, and build a simple checklist that catches mandatory attachments and deadlines before they become a problem.
Learning objective: Learn to read and break down a Request for Proposals so nothing important gets missed.
What skills you will learn: How to locate eligibility rules, scoring criteria, and required attachments, and how to build a personal RFP checklist.
How this applies in the field: Anyone applying for a grant can use this skill to avoid the disqualifying mistakes that eliminate strong proposals before they are even scored.
Coming SoonGCR-6.4
The Do's and Don'ts of Grant Writing
Most proposals are not rejected for lack of a good cause, they are rejected for avoidable, common mistakes. This kit is a practical, myth-busting look at the habits that consistently win funding, alongside the jargon, padding, and unsupported claims that consistently lose it. Staff review real proposal excerpts to practice telling the difference for themselves.
Learning objective: Learn the specific habits that make a grant proposal stronger and the mistakes that make one weaker.
What skills you will learn: Real examples of strong versus weak proposal writing, and a working list of grant writing do's and don'ts.
How this applies in the field: Any staff member drafting a proposal can use this as a quick gut-check before submission.
Coming SoonGCR-6.5
Crafting a Compelling Needs Statement
A needs statement has to make a funder feel the urgency of a problem without turning the community it describes into a stereotype. This kit teaches staff to blend real local data with authentic community voice, while actively avoiding the deficit language that can end up stigmatizing the very people a program serves.
Learning objective: Learn to write a needs statement that is evidence-based, urgent, and respectful of the community it describes.
What skills you will learn: How to combine data and community voice, and how to spot and avoid deficit language.
How this applies in the field: Any proposal, report, or funding pitch can use this approach to make a stronger, more honest case for support.
Coming SoonGCR-6.6
Writing SMART Goals and Objectives
Funders trust proposals with goals they can actually measure. This kit teaches staff to turn a program vision into Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound objectives, and clarifies the real difference between a goal, an objective, and an activity, a mix-up that trips up even experienced grant writers.
Learning objective: Learn to write SMART objectives that funders can trust and a program can actually track.
What skills you will learn: The difference between goals, objectives, and activities, and how to align objectives with an evaluation plan from the start.
How this applies in the field: Any program can use SMART objectives to strengthen not just grant proposals, but everyday program planning.
Coming SoonGCR-6.7
Building a Logic Model
A logic model puts a program's entire story onto one page, connecting resources and activities to the outputs and outcomes they are meant to produce. This kit introduces the five building blocks of a logic model and shows staff how to use it both to catch gaps in a program's design and to present that design clearly to funders and staff alike.
Learning objective: Learn to build a one-page logic model that connects a program's resources to its intended results.
What skills you will learn: The five building blocks of a logic model, and how to use it to catch design gaps before submission.
How this applies in the field: Any program can use a logic model to explain itself clearly to funders, staff, and its own leadership.
Coming SoonGCR-6.8
Program Design and Theory of Change
Funders want to know why a program will work, not just what activities it plans to run. This kit guides staff through articulating a clear theory of change, defining the problem, the intervention, and the expected result, and grounding that reasoning in both lived experience and outside evidence.
Learning objective: Learn to articulate why a program design will actually produce the change it promises.
What skills you will learn: How to define a problem, intervention, and expected result, and how to communicate that reasoning in plain language.
How this applies in the field: Any organization designing a new program can use this to build a stronger, more persuasive case from the very start.
Coming SoonGCR-6.9
Budget Development for Grant Proposals
A budget can quietly sink a proposal if it does not match the story the narrative is telling. This kit demystifies grant budgeting, walking staff through direct versus indirect costs, allowable expenses, and the common red flags that trigger funder questions before an application ever reaches a decision-maker.
Learning objective: Learn to build an accurate, defensible grant budget from the ground up.
What skills you will learn: Direct versus indirect costs, allowable expenses, and the budget red flags that raise funder concerns.
How this applies in the field: Any grant writer or program manager can use this to build budgets that hold up to funder scrutiny.
Coming SoonGCR-6.10
Writing the Budget Narrative
Numbers alone do not explain themselves. This kit focuses specifically on the budget narrative, the written explanation that turns line items into a clear, funder-friendly justification, teaching staff to explain each cost's purpose and tie every dollar back to the program's stated outcomes.
Learning objective: Learn to write a budget narrative that clearly justifies every line item in a proposal.
What skills you will learn: How to explain the purpose behind each cost, and how to format a narrative for easy funder cross-reference.
How this applies in the field: Any staff member submitting a budget can use this to make the numbers easier for a funder to trust and approve.
Coming SoonGCR-6.11
Navigating Federal Grants (SAMHSA, HRSA, CDC)
Federal funding opens doors that state and local grants cannot, but it also comes with its own language and requirements. This kit introduces the federal funding landscape most relevant to HIV, recovery, and behavioral health work, covering Notices of Funding Opportunity, grants.gov, and the basic compliance steps like SAM.gov registration that come before an agency can even apply.
Learning objective: Learn the basics of pursuing federal grant funding through agencies like SAMHSA, HRSA, and the CDC.
What skills you will learn: How to read a Notice of Funding Opportunity, use grants.gov, and complete basic federal compliance steps like SAM.gov and UEI registration.
How this applies in the field: Any agency considering federal funding for the first time can use this to understand what capacity and timeline it actually requires.
Coming SoonGCR-6.12
State and Local Government Grants
State and local funders often move differently than federal agencies, and relationships matter more here than almost anywhere else. This kit explores how state health authorities and county governments fund community programs, and how to build the kind of relationship with a program officer that turns into repeat funding year after year.
Learning objective: Learn how state and local government grants differ from federal funding, and how to navigate each successfully.
What skills you will learn: Differences in application processes, and how to build relationships with state and county program officers.
How this applies in the field: Any agency working within a specific state or county can use this to build a more reliable, local funding base.
Coming SoonGCR-6.13
Foundation and Private Grant Funding
Private and family foundations run on relationships as much as they run on paperwork. This kit covers the unique culture of foundation funding, including how to research a foundation's priorities and giving history, and the role of a letter of inquiry as the door that opens before a full proposal is ever invited.
Learning objective: Learn how private and family foundation funding differs from government funding, and how to approach it.
What skills you will learn: How to research foundation priorities and giving history, and the role letters of inquiry play in the process.
How this applies in the field: Any agency looking to diversify beyond government grants can use this to start building foundation relationships.
Coming SoonGCR-6.14
Letters of Inquiry and Concept Papers
Many funders want a short document before they will ever read a full proposal. This kit teaches staff to structure a tight, one to two page letter of inquiry that leads with impact and urgency rather than organizational history, and how to follow up professionally without coming across as pushy.
Learning objective: Learn to write a concise, compelling letter of inquiry that earns an invitation to submit a full proposal.
What skills you will learn: How to structure a short concept document, and how to follow up with a funder appropriately.
How this applies in the field: Any agency approaching a new funder for the first time can use this to make a strong first impression.
Coming SoonGCR-6.15
Writing a Compelling Executive Summary
The executive summary is the most read section of any proposal, and often the only one a busy decision-maker reads closely. This kit focuses on hooking a funder in the first paragraph, summarizing need, solution, and impact in under a page, and teaches the counterintuitive practice of writing the summary last, even though it appears first.
Learning objective: Learn to write an executive summary that captures a funder's attention and holds it.
What skills you will learn: How to summarize need, solution, and impact briefly, and why the strongest summaries are written last.
How this applies in the field: Any proposal, report, or pitch benefits from a sharper executive summary using this same approach.
Coming SoonGCR-6.16
Building a Sustainability Plan
Every funder eventually asks the same question, what happens when the grant ends. This kit helps staff answer that question with confidence, covering how to diversify future revenue streams, plan for staff and systems after funding ends, and write sustainability language that actually builds funder confidence instead of just filling a required section.
Learning objective: Learn to write a sustainability plan that genuinely answers what happens after a grant ends.
What skills you will learn: How to plan for future revenue diversification and staff or systems continuity beyond a single grant.
How this applies in the field: Any program funded primarily through grants can use this to build a real plan for its own long-term survival.
Coming SoonGCR-6.17
Building the Evaluation Plan Into Your Proposal
A strong evaluation section does double duty, it builds funder trust now and sets a program up for renewal later. This kit shows staff how to align evaluation measures with stated objectives, choose data collection methods realistic for a small agency, and explain how findings will actually inform future program improvement.
Learning objective: Learn to build an evaluation plan directly into a grant proposal that funders will trust.
What skills you will learn: How to align evaluation measures with objectives, and how to choose realistic data collection methods for a small team.
How this applies in the field: Any agency writing a proposal can use this to strengthen both its chances of funding and its future renewal case.
Coming SoonGCR-6.18
Community Partnerships and Letters of Support
A proposal is often only as strong as the partnerships behind it. This kit explores how genuine collaboration strengthens a proposal, teaches staff to identify partners who add real capacity rather than just a recognizable name, and covers when a formal memorandum of understanding is necessary to satisfy a funder's requirements.
Learning objective: Learn to build community partnerships that genuinely strengthen a grant proposal.
What skills you will learn: How to identify meaningful partners, request specific letters of support, and formalize partnerships with MOUs when required.
How this applies in the field: Any agency can use this to build a partner network that adds real credibility to future funding applications.
Coming SoonGCR-6.19
Why Grants Get Rejected
This kit takes an honest look at the most common, avoidable reasons a strong proposal still gets declined, from missed eligibility requirements to vague outcomes and unrealistic budgets. Staff leave with a clear, practical checklist for grant-proofing their own submissions before they go out the door.
Learning objective: Learn the most common, avoidable reasons grant proposals get rejected.
What skills you will learn: Real patterns behind missed deadlines, funder misalignment, and weak or unsupported outcome claims.
How this applies in the field: Any staff member can use this checklist to catch avoidable mistakes before a proposal is ever submitted.
Coming SoonGCR-6.20
Grant Compliance and Reporting Requirements
Winning a grant is only the beginning of the work. This kit prepares staff for the operational reality of managing an award, covering the difference between programmatic and financial reporting, how to set up tracking systems from day one, and how to stay compliant with the specific rules attached to each individual grant.
Learning objective: Learn what it actually takes to stay compliant with a grant once it has been awarded.
What skills you will learn: The difference between programmatic and financial reporting, and how to set up tracking systems from the start of an award.
How this applies in the field: Any agency managing an active grant can use this to avoid compliance problems that put future funding at risk.
Coming SoonGCR-6.21
Managing Multiple Grants and Deadlines
Small teams often juggle several proposals, reports, and renewal cycles at once, with no dedicated staff to manage the traffic. This kit offers practical systems for building a shared grant calendar and pipeline tracker, prioritizing opportunities by fit and deadline, and protecting the team from burnout during the busiest application seasons.
Learning objective: Learn practical systems for managing multiple grants and deadlines at once without letting anything slip.
What skills you will learn: How to build a shared grant calendar, prioritize opportunities, and protect the team from burnout.
How this applies in the field: Any small team juggling more than one grant can use this to stay organized without adding new staff.
Coming SoonGCR-6.22
Post-Award Grant Management
The moment a grant is awarded, a new set of responsibilities begins. This kit covers what happens from kickoff to closeout, including setting up internal systems for spending and documentation, communicating proactively with a program officer throughout the grant period, and preparing for the site visits and audits that can come at any point.
Learning objective: Learn what happens operationally the moment a grant is awarded, from kickoff through closeout.
What skills you will learn: How to set up spending and documentation systems, and how to prepare for funder site visits and audits.
How this applies in the field: Any agency managing a newly awarded grant can use this to start the award off on solid footing.
Coming SoonGCR-6.23
Diversifying Revenue Beyond Grants
Relying on grants alone leaves an agency vulnerable every time a funding cycle ends. This kit encourages agencies to build a broader, more resilient funding mix, exploring earned revenue, fee-for-service models, and individual donor pipelines, while staying honest about the tension between mission integrity and new revenue opportunities.
Learning objective: Learn to reduce grant dependency by building a broader mix of revenue sources.
What skills you will learn: Earned revenue models, fee-for-service options, and individual donor and monthly-giving pipelines.
How this applies in the field: Any agency wanting more financial stability can use this to start building revenue streams beyond grants alone.
Coming SoonGCR-6.24
Ethics and Integrity in Grant Writing
Persuasive writing and misrepresentation can sit uncomfortably close together, and this kit draws a clear line between them. It grounds grant writing in honesty, examining how to represent community need and data accurately, how to avoid exploitative storytelling of lived experience, and how to stay transparent with funders about real challenges and setbacks.
Learning objective: Learn where the line sits between persuasive grant writing and misrepresentation.
What skills you will learn: How to represent data and community need honestly, and how to avoid exploiting lived experience for effect.
How this applies in the field: Any grant writer can use this to protect both funder trust and the dignity of the community being represented.
Coming SoonGCR-6.25
Building a Grant Writing Team and Peer Review Process
This capstone kit shows small agencies how to build internal grant writing capacity even without a dedicated grant writer on staff. Staff learn to assign clear roles across program, finance, and leadership, create a peer-review checklist before any proposal goes out, and grow real grant writing skill in-house over time instead of relying permanently on outside consultants.
Learning objective: Learn to build internal grant writing capacity and a quality review process, even without a dedicated grant writer.
What skills you will learn: How to assign clear roles across staff, and how to build a peer-review checklist before submission.
How this applies in the field: Any small agency can use this to grow its own grant writing skill instead of depending on outside consultants long term.
