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Peer Support
Young people face many adversities before and after leaving home.
Service systems are often rigid/standardized and do not adequately account for young people’s trauma and adaptive distrust.
Young people are disaffiliated generally and disaffiliated from services and largely cope on their own.
Peer support offers nonjudgmental and flexible support through shared lived experience and genuine interest and care for the young person, what they have been through, and what they want for themselves.
How do peers (providers with lived experience) support young people experiencing homelessness?
Peers center self-directed growth among young people, rather than program-directed change outcomes. Peers recognize growth happens in seasons, has ups and downs and requires ongoing support through the journey. Learn more here.
Peers, through relationships with young people, invite possibility and create containers of hope. Learn more here.
Young people experience peer support as uniquely caring and supportive. Learn more here.
The Affirming Ground Project and The Housing Outreach Project-Collaborative (HOP-C) co-hosted a webinar about peer support for young people experiencing homelessness. Watch the recording from the webinar here.
Affirming Ground team members reflect on the experiences of peer support specialists. Click below to listen.
Experiences from Peer Support SpecialistsAffirming Ground
00:00 / 1:02:52
Time Stamps:
0:00 Getting started as a peer
7:25 The insider/outsider experience
36:30: How (not) having an agenda intersects with recovery
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