Building capacity for family support will (I) increase the number of well-trained family peer workforce members serving families with children and youth with mental health needs (SED); (II) create and…

Building capacity for family support will (I) increase the number of well-trained family peer workforce members serving families with children and youth with mental health needs (SED); (II) create and support an infrastructure that strengthens the family peer workforce through continuing education, peer support, and exchange of information; (III) increase the number of effective policy advocates for families with children and youth with SED; and (IV) will increase the numbers of families with children and youth with SED served and supported in massachusetts. These goals will be achieved by creating a family partner hub consisting of a family peer certification program accessible to diverse underserved populations, and family peer connections to provide continuing education, support, and information exchange among family peer workforce members. Peer to peer support has been proven effective to increase hope, collaboration, self-efficacy, advocacy, and empowerment, and decrease isolation and internalized blame among parents/caregivers of children and youth with SED. The incidences of mental health challenges among children and youth is on the rise with roughly one-third of youth and young adults identifying symptoms of mental health distress in themselves, and visits to emergency depts for mental health reasons increasing by 24-31% recently. The mental health workforce has experienced a significant retraction during and post-covid. Family peer workers can help fill the service gaps created by the retraction and mitigate the workforce crisis. An increase in available diverse, qualified, and well-trained family peer workforce members will have a direct impact on families with children and youth with SED. This project will emphasize providing career pathways for persons from diverse and underserved or under-resourced communities. Success of this project will be measured by numbers of participants in the hub, number of participants who attain employment in the family peer workforce, number of participants who advocate at policy levels for improvement in children's mental health access and services, and number of families served as a result of the hub graduates.