Someone to Turn To: A Vision for Creating Networks of Parent Peer Care
This Insights paper presents Rise’s vision for a peer network of collective care by and for parents. This fall, Rise created a parent Peer Vision Team to explore building a peer care model that can strengthen families while reducing contact with the family policing system.
Nationwide and in New York City, where Rise is based, it’s crucial to broadly reorganize supports for families so that accessing resources and services does not put parents at risk of state intervention in their families. Our society should target community conditions, not families. This report shares a vision for one critical component of strong communities: networks of peer support and community care.
Parents often trust other parents from their community who can share information and provide support as peers—and evaluations of credible messenger and peer support models show that they are effective. Relationship-building that respects, values and supports families getting what they need without shame, blame and coercion can better support family safety.
Our vision is that trained networks of peers with credible life experience will:
- Increase the likelihood that parents in emerging crises safely get support without state intervention;
- Increase the flourishing of peer relationships that reduce stress, trauma and isolation and strengthen healing, care, connectedness and joy.
In this Insights report, you will find the following information, articles and stories—and much more:
- The Problem: A Culture of Investigations, Not Support, Harms Families
- How It Can Work: Rise's Vision for Peer Collective Care
- Building a Vision for Organizing and Community Care
- We Need a Childhood Protective Service by Keyna Franklin, Assistant Editor
- Evidence: How Peer Support Offers Safety that Isn't About Punishment
- Making It Happen: How You Can Be Involved in Building Networks of Parent Peer Care
>> Download and share the report
Rise's Peer and Community Care Model Webinar
Wednesday, May 26th, 3:00-4:30 PM
Register today for a webinar and panel discussion about strengthening support for families and communities!
In this webinar, Rise will present our vision for how a network of trained Peer and Community Supporters with lived experience can help to prevent involvement in the family policing system (and other punitive systems), address barriers to resources and support identified by parents and contribute to safe, strong families and communities.
Peer support as a tool to strengthen safety, build connections and prevent system involvement is not a new idea — this work is already being done effectively in other spaces in New York City. In this webinar, we will hear from a panel of people experienced with building community and providing support through mutual aid networks, restorative justice approaches, credible messenger training, and harm reduction peer work:
- Ashley Ellis, B.R.E.A.T.H.E Collective
- Keyonn Sheppard, Institute for Transformative Mentoring
- Marilyn Reyes, Peer Network of New York
- Kelvin Taitt, East Brooklyn Mutual Aid
We will also engage in discussion around what it will take to advocate for and build parent peer support networks throughout NYC and nationwide.
Peer Vision Team: Our Process
Rise created a parent-led workgroup to develop this report, composed almost entirely of parents impacted by the family policing system (eight out of nine members). The Peer Vision Team included Careena Farmer, Shakira Paige, Tenisha Sanders, Norahsee Ortiz, Imani Worthy, Keyna Franklin, Jeanette Vega, Teresa Marrero and Tracy Serdjenian.
During the eight months that our workgroup met to develop this vision, we regularly held discussions and reflected through writing about our own life experiences. Research, training, interviews, reading, exploring community resources and reviewing information shared by others doing similar work helped us build our vision. Most critical was conducting eight interviews with individuals working for organizations that operate from a model of peer and community care.
>> Learn more about the Peer Vision Team and peer support and community care at Rise
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