I’ve been working on a really demanding and dreamy project since September, and I want to tell you why it’s so meaningful, not just to me, but to all of us.
I’ve been working with adolescents for over a decade in prevention, treatment, and recovery. They’re my favorite people.
But most of our systems focus on adults and people who have severe mental health and substance use problems. In doing so, we often miss the opportunity to support younger people whose health challenges may not have progressed to the highest levels of severity.
To me, that means we’re missing one of the biggest opportunities we have: preventing more serious problems and more profound harm before they happen.
It also means we’re missing opportunities to listen.
Young people’s voices often go ignored when it comes to decisions about their own health, their bodies, and especially their substance use and mental health. Adults frequently make decisions for them rather than with them. Even when we have the best intentions, we can underestimate how much wisdom young people have about their own lives and what they need.
But peer support is different.
Why Peer Support Matters for Adolescents
Peer support focuses on the individual, putting them in the driver’s seat. It meets people at any point along the continuum: prevention and harm reduction, early intervention, treatment, and recovery. Peer supporters can meet people literally anywhere.
That matters because young people do not always fit neatly into categories or diagnoses. Sometimes they are struggling, but not enough to qualify for intensive services. Sometimes they are trying to figure out who they are, what they want, and how to navigate challenges that feel overwhelming. They still deserve support, connection, and someone who believes in their ability to make decisions about their own lives.
That’s why this project to develop an adolescent peer support model is so powerful. It truly centers young people’s autonomy, dignity, and choice. It breaks young people out of the limitations of silos and diagnoses and focuses instead on who they are and what matters to them.
This project puts the voices and goals of young people at the heart of its design.
Building a New Adolescent Peer Support Model in Connecticut
It also has a very unique funder: the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. They wanted to design a brand new program and model for peer support for adolescents with substance use and mental health concerns. They tapped Paul Alves of Choice Recovery Coaching and myself to build out the program, including role definition, training, implementation, and a new credential for adolescent peer support with the Connecticut Certification Board.
We put together a Young Person Advisory Board and an amazing curriculum development team, including Natalie DeLaCruz, Carolyn Castro, Roger Oser, Ruth Riddick, and Sarah Ahern.
The team worked really hard over seven months to develop a 60-hour curriculum of both foundational training and advanced practice and ethics for the role, and to define and establish the role for a new state credential.
We delivered the first 30 hours of training in March and the second 30 hours in early May to a cohort of 14 amazing new Young Person Peer Supporters.
Half of the Young Person Peer Supporters are working in three regions under the umbrella of Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, and the other half in the remaining regions under the umbrella of Advocacy Unlimited.
One of the project’s greatest strengths is bringing together a substance health-focused organization and a mental health-focused organization. We intentionally designed the role to bridge the gap between those two models because we know people show up with their whole selves. Wellness is a holistic process, and it can be difficult to achieve through siloed care.
Our Young Person Peer Supporters are prepared to support adolescents facing multiple challenges to their health and wellbeing.
At the end of the first round of training back in March, I listened as participants used the phrase “young person voice and choice” in their scenario discussions over and over again.
And it hit me.
This work is social justice.
This work is about treating young people with dignity and autonomy, pushing back against the norm of how traditional systems disempower them instead of seeing them as active agents and resources in their own lives. It’s about creating enough safety for young people to use their voice. It’s about honoring who they are and what they care about.
It’s about responding to all of who they are and saying:
Yes.
I see you.
I value you.
I believe in you.
You are wanted and welcome here.
What can I help you with?
Looking Ahead
Now that the first cohort of Young Person Peer Supporters is trained and on the job, we will be supporting implementation and fidelity to the model through monthly Communities of Practice, one-on-one coaching, and leadership support.
We hope that they will have an incredible impact on young people across Connecticut, prove how valuable they are, and help set the stage for adolescent peer support far beyond Connecticut.
We hope this work creates not only new pathways to wellness, but also viable career pathways for young people with lived and living experience of substance use and mental health challenges who want to help others.
It is truly an honor to work on a project like this.
I hope that more states find visionary funders like the Connecticut Department of Children and Families who are willing to say yes to peer support for people under 18.
Because young people deserve support that trusts them, values them, and gives them a voice in their own lives.