BUTLER TWP — Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center has two people who are newly ready to make a difference, empowering themselves and others in the nursing home.

On Thursday afternoon, Bob Henry, 59, and Francis LeFevre, 59, graduated as PEERs, a person who has completed the Pennsylvania Empowered Expert Residents Program available through the state’s Department of Aging, according to Sunnyview administrator Tricia Kradel.

“The PEER program ... trains resident advocates to work with the facility staff, local ombudsman and other residents to enhance quality of care and quality of life for their peers,” Kradel said.

Henry and LeFevre will now volunteer their time, along with the home’s 16 other PEERs, to advocate for themselves and the other residents. This includes working with the facility’s administration and discussing ideas about how to improve the offerings of Sunnyview, according to Kradel. Primarily, this has been in the form of providing feedback on activities and events that can get the residents outside of the nursing home.

This also gives residents an opportunity to stay productive and involved in their community, according to Carol Israel, the ombudsman for Butler County.

Thursday’s graduation included special guests, the PEERs from Newhaven Court. Sunnyview and Newhaven are the only homes in the county that use the PEER program, according to Israel.

The program provides an important way for residents to protect and maintain their rights, learning to self-advocate for the issues that affect them, according to Israel.

“This is very important to the people here, that they are able to help others, and Sunnyview supports that,” said Lisa Trepasso, activity director. “We support the empowerment of residents. We support the individual choices, and PEER helps to remind residents of long-term care or assisted living that they are able to still make choices, they’re able to help people, that they have roles that are still important.”

For Henry, the opportunity lets him be the person residents, especially new ones, can turn to.

“It feels exciting that I’m going to help people,” he said. “I just have a feeling that this is what God wanted me to do.”

As Beth Herold, the director of the Butler County Area Agency on Aging, said, moving into a nursing home can cause significant anxiety and fear. Henry hopes he can allay that.

“Whenever you move in to a facility like Sunnyview, it is an adjustment,” he said, stressing that he will be the person new residents can look to for guidance and inspiration.

LeFevre seconded that: “These people need someone they know they can go to. It’s exciting.”