Empowering Foster Youth: Peer2Peer Program

Last year, Children’s Aid and Family Services’ Peer2Peer program graduated 14 participants and continues its mission of pairing foster youth in the care of the state’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency with trained mentors who themselves have been in the child welfare system.

Peer2Peer was developed as a pilot program in 2020 to provide additional support to children and teens. Since its inception, the program has served 41 participants, ages 14-21.

The 18-month program contains three phases: engagement, empowerment, and connections.

During the engagement phase, mentors and mentees are paired to collaborate, focusing on social skills and building trust. During the empowerment phase, they work on goals they have set to build a strong foundation when they graduate. The connections phase helps them find resources and providers and learn to self-advocate. Peers meet with their mentors at minimum twice a month but are always in close touch. “The mentors are there as a support system, a source for resources and emotional assistance,” says Javier.

Peer Navigators are valued mentors because of their lived experience in foster care. “They share similar situations and struggles with the youth they work with, use their own experiences to offer advice, and help them advocate for themselves,” says Javier Argueta, Program Coordinator for Peer2Peer.

Support Beyond Graduation

A 15-year-old who started with his Peer2Peer mentor in middle school and completed the program early in high school hopes to return for assistance during his later high school years. “As long as they are under the age of 20 we welcome graduates to re-enter the program as new challenges and expectations come up in their development,” says Javier. Another participant was given advice and support in obtaining a commercial driver’s license, which will help him obtain a better-paying job as he ages out of foster care. “He had hopes and dreams but needed motivation, inspiration, and help in what steps to take to get the license,” adds Javier.

And even after completing the program and graduating, the relationships with their mentors remain, says Javier. “The beautiful part is as they learn to advocate and make connections for themselves, they can still reach out for mentor support.”

A measure of the program’s success is seeing young people who graduate moving on and advocating for themselves, with some requesting to come back as they see the benefits of working with a mentor. “That is a very encouraging sign that what we’re doing is working,” says Javier.