Family Peer Support

What is Family Peer Support?

Child Serving Systems can be complex and challenging to navigate. Family Peer Support, sometimes referred to as Parent Peer Support, assists parents and primary caregivers who need support and guidance in how to access and engage with these systems.

Families benefit from the support of a trained and certified Family Peer Support Worker (FPSW) who has lived experience parenting a child, youth, or young adult with emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges.

Education, support, and advocacy are integral components of Family Peer Support Programs, which are grounded in a System of Care approach that places strong emphasis on family and youth voice and choice in service delivery and administration.

The Center of Innovation provides training and program implementation support to New Mexico community-based provider organizations who provide family peer support as a standalone service or as a part of a High-Fidelity Wraparound Program.

What is a Family Peer Support Worker?

A Family Peer Support Worker is a parent or primary caregiver who has the lived experience of raising a child that experienced emotional, behavioral, mental health, and/or substance use challenges that required them to navigate child-serving systems on behalf of their own child.

Family Peer Support Workers receive specialized training to empower other families who are raising children with similar experiences.

They also help families gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage behaviors, sharing experience as appropriate to establish a bond on similar experience.

Family Peer Support Workers use a strengths-based and culturally sensitive approach that recognizes individual youth and family identity, cultural history, life experiences, beliefs, and preferences.

Current Providers

Visit our Provider Page for detailed list of current provider information. If you are interested in providing Family Peer Support, please contact us and a provider liaison will be in touch.