PEER MENTOR PROGRAM

Supporting host and adoptive families serving older youth.

THE PEER MENTOR PROGRAM

The Peer Mentor Program connects adults who have lived experience with adults who are just starting the journey. Peer Mentors understand the challenges new parents and hosts may face—they help them navigate trauma, behavior, and child welfare systems.

They support new hosts and parents build stronger relationships with other caregivers such as school staff and foster parents. They coach on cultural connection and identity affirming support for hosts and their child in foster care.

Ultimately, they support the longevity of the connection between new hosts and prospective adoptive parents and their child in foster care.
Peer Mentors advise and support new adult hosts and prospective adoptive parents.

Who are the Peer Mentors?

The Peer Mentors are formers hosts and adoptive parents, many of whom have previously participated in Kidsave’s Weekend Miracles program. They have been selected to serve as Mentors due to their dedication and success in serving youth in foster care.

All Peer Mentors have at least one year of experience and are trained in trauma-informed and culturally responsive care.

  • Addressing trauma and behavioral needs
  • Providing reassurance
  • Navigating complex systems
  • Accessing resources
  • Navigating relationships with foster families and schools, and
  • Fostering positive cultural connection, identity, and permanency.

The hosts and adoptive parents who receive support are newly matched adults hosting older youth in foster care as part of Kidsave’s Weekend Miracles programs.

The Weekend Miracles Program

Weekend Miracles, our unique hosting program, finds families who want to adopt a child and lifelong connections for older kids in foster care (ages 9-17). We work with kids who often feel overlooked and are left to age out of care into the world alone.

Through fun and interactive Meet the Kids events, families and kids get to know each other in a relaxed and engaging environment. Best of all, our program gives the kids a voice and a choice in who they would like to spend more time with, helping create a more organic and meaningful connection.

The program serves families in Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; and Northern and Central Virginia.