The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) today announced a $4 million investment to expand and professionalize family peer support services statewide. This initiative is designed to improve outcomes for children and families by ensuring that families navigating complex systems have access to support and guidance from someone who truly understands their journey. The investment will strengthen the behavioral health workforce by offering support for 40 new Certified Family Peer Specialists that combined will help nearly a thousand families each year.

Family peer support partners are parents, caregivers or family members with lived experience raising children with behavioral health challenges. These trained professionals help families navigate systems such as behavioral health, education, child welfare and juvenile justice, while also advocating for and connecting the families they serve to critical services and supports.

“Family peer support is about meeting families where they are with compassion and expertise,” said NCDHHS Deputy Secretary for Opportunity and Well-Being Susan Osborne. “This investment will help us build a highly trained and certified workforce of family peers who can provide critical guidance and support to families navigating the behavioral health system.”

NCDHHS is partnering with UNC Greensboro (UNCG) to implement the initiative under the umbrella of the UNCG NC Youth and Family Voices Amplified program. UNCG NC Voices Amplified is a statewide initiative that trains individuals with lived experience to become family and youth peer support partners and assists provider agencies in integrating family partners with the services they provide. UNCG will conduct evaluations to assess the new initiative’s impact, including tracking families’ progress and satisfaction with family peer support services.

Participants will be credentialed through the National Federation of Families as Certified Family Peer Specialists, ensuring a high standard of training and professionalism. These efforts aim to transform family peer support in North Carolina into a funded professional position, helping to create a new trauma-informed, family-focused service area within the behavioral health workforce.

“Family and youth peer support is an evidence-informed practice that improves health outcomes, while reducing overall costs of services,” said UNCG NC Voices Amplified project director Willow Burgess-Johnson. “Family peer support partners improve quality of life for those struggling with behavioral health issues and for the people who love and care for them. We’re so excited to see this important support become increasingly accessible for North Carolinians.”

By investing in family peer support, NCDHHS aims to:

• Reduce need for out-of-home placements for children with complex behavioral health needs
• Support reunification and permanency for children and families involved in the child welfare system
• Decrease the number of nights children spend in emergency departments waiting for an appropriate placement or treatment option by connecting more families to community-based supports
• Build a strong behavioral health workforce that reflects and understands the unique challenges faced by families of children with complex needs
• Empower families to advocate for themselves and their children

This initiative is part of the department’s broader $835 million investments in behavioral health, including $80 million in services to transform the child behavioral health system and improve outcomes for children and families with complex behavioral health needs. The goal is to create an integrated system of care in North Carolina’s homes, communities and schools to ensure children have access to the level of care they need, helping to prevent crisis and keep children with their families whenever safely possible. The department continues to invest in a continuum of services that expand equitable access to high-quality, trauma-informed, family-centered care.

To learn more about family peer support, visit the NC Youth and Family Voices Amplified FAQ page.