STACY PHILLIPS: OK. So good morning. Thank you for joining us for our Families First training series. My name is Stacy Phillips. I am the project director for Educational Leadership Development for the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. Families First is a Philadelphia Interagency Coordinating Council activity, which is funded by the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services, as well as Elwyn Early Learning Services.

Today, I have the great pleasure of introducing Sarah Holland. She is the director of Parent to Parent and Family Engagement Initiatives. She is also a proud mother of two sons, one of whom has complex disabilities. And she will tell you more about her journey when she starts.

Our team will be monitoring the chat. So if you have a question or a comment, please feel free to put them in the chat. We will also save time at the end to allow questions. And with that, I am going to turn it over to you, Sarah. Thank you so much for being here.

SARAH HOLLAND: Oh, well, thank you so much for having me. I'm so sorry I can't join you in Philadelphia today. I am sure that the city is just buzzing, of course, in anticipation of this presentation, I'm sure, is what's really getting the city motivated today to get up and moving and not the fact that you just won the Super Bowl. Go Birds! I'd like to take a moment of silence, of cheer, to wish you all the best in Philadelphia.

I live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, so I'm not that far from you. I grew up in Chester County. And I hail from a large family, all of whom are ardent Philadelphia sport fan supporters. So I appreciate you coming today. I hope that you're all sufficiently recovered. You have a chance to take a little bit of a breather before the festivities continue on Friday. So again, thanks so much for having me.

Again, my name is Sarah Holland, for those of you that I haven't had a chance to meet yet. And I am the director of Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania. Before I get too far, I just wonder-- and let me see if I can make you bigger in the room a minute-- if there are folks that have heard about Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania before. If you could give me a signal of some sort if you have-- Stacy has. I see a couple other folks in the back. Thank you, Roxana. And it looks like perhaps we have a few folks that haven't heard about Parent to Parent, which is great.

OK. Let me make you smaller again so I can see you. So yeah. Hold on one second. I need to change my view for a second. There we go.

So my goal is by the end of our time together today, you're going to know a little bit more about Parent to Parent, more importantly, why you might want to become involved with Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, what we have to offer, and certainly, hopefully, I'll have a chance to-- definitely, we'll have a chance to answer any questions that you have. This is a fairly small group.

I do see there's somebody in the waiting room, Stacy. Did you want me to let them-- oh, maybe not. You got them. Thank you.

STACY PHILLIPS: Thank you.

SARAH HOLLAND: Sure, not a problem. So certainly, I can keep this fairly informal. So I'm going to talk. But if you have questions-- thank you so much for Stacy and her team. They're helping me with the chat. But if you have questions, feel free to put them in the chat. But we're a small group. So as long as it's OK with Stacy, you can also feel free to unmute. If you're comfortable, you can turn on your camera and wave a little bit so we see you. So if I get going, and you have some questions, feel free to let us know. Welcome, Gail. And welcome, everybody. Thanks so much for using the chat.

So a little bit about myself first-- these are a few pictures of my family. One second because I lost you all again. A few pictures of my family here. I am the proud mother of two boys. My son Ian is now-- he just turned 31, which is unbelievable to me. And my son Lars is 20.

My son Ian is the one that brought me into this world and into this amazing disability community that, when I look over just the course of my life, has probably been one of the most amazing things that I feel I have the privilege of being a part of in just this small way.

I say this about both my boys, but Ian was my first. So I feel like everything that I learned that is most important, everything that I've learned that grounds me, that gives my life meaning, that connects me to this great Earth I learned through parenting, I learned through my two kids. And I feel so blessed to have them both in my life.

And so a couple of pictures of us, a couple of the older ones, my husband, and my son Ian when he was-- I don't know. He was probably about two-ish in that picture there. And then when my son Lars was born, Ian was 10, and then a couple pictures of us a little bit older. We were recently at my niece's wedding in Philadelphia. We had a grand old time. Ian had a great time at the wedding. So I wanted to share a little bit about that.

But again, as I said before, I live in Lancaster. It's where I've lived the whole time since Ian was born. I've had a long journey within this disability community. And surprisingly enough, my journey actually started-- my professional journey around family support started with me working with Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania.

When Ian was about two years old, there was some buzz in Pennsylvania about the possibility of us starting a statewide parent-to-parent network. And there were meetings held throughout the state where families gathered. And they talked about what having the ability to connect with other parents would mean to them, and how they were doing it now, and how it could be a little bit easier. And from some of those meetings, this concept of a statewide parent-to-parent program started. And soon after that, funding was secured.

At the beginning of Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, we received funding from-- and we continue to receive funding from what is now the Office of Child Development and Early Learning. Before, it had different names, was in different departments, but basically through our early intervention system in Pennsylvania, both our infant-toddler and preschool early intervention system, as well as in the beginning, we also received some support from the Department of Health. And Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania was launched.

So we have a very long history, over 25 years. I think we're coming up on 28 years now. And I was one of the first regional coordinators with Parent to Parent. I worked in the Southeast region. And in Parent to Parent, when we say the Southeast region, we include all the way over to Philadelphia, all of your surrounding counties, all the way over to Lancaster, up to Schuylkill and including Berks County. You don't need to know that. All you need to know is we serve families all across Pennsylvania. From corner to corner, we're here to support folks in Pennsylvania.

So I worked with Parent to Parent as the regional coordinator for about five or six years. And then I left that position for a full-time position with an organization called the Special Kids Network, where I did information and referral for families that had children with disabilities to help them get connected to services and supports.

Then I continued with that organization, but in a different role. I did something called community systems development, where I worked with community groups in helping to organize and support initiatives and families that have kids with disabilities. And then after that, I moved to the Office of Child Development and Early Learning.

So for those of you that aren't familiar with the Office of Child development and early learning, I'll give a couple just key points that I think are important for you to know as family members that have kiddos with developmental delays or disabilities that are receiving early intervention services. The Office of Child Development and Early Learning, if somebody says the state-- if you're ever in a meeting, and they're like, the state says-- the Office of Child Development and Early Learning is probably what they are referring to.

They are our statewide office, so the state administrator of early childhood programs in Pennsylvania. And that includes early intervention and includes early intervention, infant-toddler, as well as early intervention preschool programs. In your life, of course, you know that probably as ChildLink if you're in infant-toddler in Philadelphia and/or Elwyn if you're in early intervention preschool in Philadelphia.

If you're joining in from one of the surrounding areas, again, county programs for infant-toddler, and then primarily intermediate units, I think, in the southeast of Pennsylvania for your preschool programs, and then Elwyn, of course, in Philadelphia and Chester City.

So at the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, what I did, I was a special assistant for family engagement. So I worked across our office, across all of our programs, which included childcare, our quality initiative called--

CHILD: [INAUDIBLE]

SARAH HOLLAND: It looks like we have a little one--

WOMAN: It's everybody but me, huh?

SARAH HOLLAND: --joining us. Thanks for that. So our childcare program, as well as our publicly funded pre-K program-- I already said early intervention, home visiting programs. All of those programs work under the Office of Child Development and Early Learning. So I worked across all of those programs, helping the office to support family engagement, think about how we infuse family voice. So I did that work for about 17 years.

And during that time, I was the liaison between our office and Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania. Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania is funded through the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, again, through early intervention dollars. Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania also gets some dollars around child abuse prevention.

Because peer-to-peer support is found to be a support for families. Parent-to-parent support, this peer-to-peer support, is found to be unique. It's a type of support that can only be found between peers. And really, research has shown that it should be and can be a very integral piece of supporting families in their journey with parenting, particularly for those of you that are parenting children with disabilities and developmental delays.

So I did that worked for about 17 years and remained very connected to Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, remained very connected to families across Pennsylvania who had young children. But of course, because of my personal experience, really at my heart was really thinking about how we could support families that had children with disabilities, particularly when they were young.

For me, what I found in my own parenting journey is that having connection to other families was really integral to me in the success of our own family. It helped me be motivated. It helped me learn state-of-the-art, new, best practice information. Certainly, I learned that from professionals as well. But it was really the network of families that kept me going.

And now that I have adult children, I still find that that connection that I've made with other families that are also on similar journeys to mine are what sustain me. They are what get me through the hard days. They are who I turn to to celebrate the good times. They are who I turn to when I'm trying to figure out, is there something that can help me with this? Whatever this is, it's always other families that have been really my solid foundation in that.

And for those of you that have young children now and that may be just starting in this journey, that's my hope for you. My hope for you is that you build a network of other families that will sustain you, that will listen to you, that will help connect you to things that are important, and that can help you get through the challenging times, as well as be there for when you're ready to celebrate. And that can really empower you on your own journeys.

And I really, honestly feel it's been the case for me since Ian was really young. And I was lucky enough to start my journey as a professional, working with Parent to Parent. But it is my hope for you that Parent to Parent can be part of your journey, and that we can be part of what helps you start to build that network, grow that network of families, and to make sure that you don't feel alone. So I'm going to pause for just a second and make sure that we don't have any questions at this moment.

So that really is our role here at Parent to Parent is to make sure that when you come into our network, that we listen to you, that we work to connect you with other families. And what we know is that when that starts to happen, what happens is families become empowered. They become empowered to finding their own solutions. They become empowered to building the competence and confidence so that they can connect with professionals in their lives in the most meaningful of ways. And again, they can spread their wings and fly, just like your Eagles. Let's see how many Eagles references I can make in the next couple-- there you go. I love it.

So Parent to Parent has some key pieces. What I think of and what is our primary role is what's here in the center, is this peer-to-peer support. Peer-to-peer support is the service, the support, that we started out with, hence our name, Parent to Parent. That is, will always be, has been, and for forever will be our main service and support.

So what we do is we use the majority of our resources, both our human and our financial resources, and the other technology resources that we have to support families in a one-to-one match. So it's peer-to-peer support.

So that is our main goal and what I believe, really, is the start for many families to start to get their sea legs, to start to figure out, where am I in this world? How can I navigate this new world that I'm entering into? How can I get some of the key questions that I have answered? I feel very strongly that this idea of peer-to-peer support, this one-to-one match, is unique. Research has shown that it is unique.

What I believe and I know is that families connect in lots of different ways. And the ways that families connected when I started at Parent to Parent looks different than it does now. There was no internet, at least not really to speak of. When I started, there was no Facebook. We were still communicating by fax between professionals. It's like back in the dark ages.

So what I know is that the way families connect now are different. The way families are finding other families now is different oftentimes. But what I do know is that what we offer here at Parent to Parent is a little bit different. Our peer-to-peer matches are what I like to call curated. I'm going to talk a little bit more about how we make those matches.

When you enter into our program, when you connect with our program, you are connected with another human being, another person, who is also a family member of a child with a disability. They're the ones that you're going to talk to. They're the ones that are going to listen to you. They're going to hear a little bit about your story.

And then they have access to our peer supporter network. And they are going to connect you. After listening to your story, after hearing you, hearing about what your primary concerns are, why it is that you're seeking support, they're going to connect you with another person. And then they're going to follow up with you and make sure that that connection works. And if it doesn't work, they'll find you a new connection.

So what I think we offer, again, is that curated connection. One, all of the folks that worked at Parent to Parent are also parents just like you. We all have unique circumstances. So their journey might not look like your journey. But you can know when you pick up the phone or send us an email or send in that form that the person on the other end that's going to read that is another parent.

In addition to that, our regional coordinators know our peer supporters. They know some more than others. I'm going to talk a little bit about our peer supporter network. But what they're able to do is really help you find that match that will work for you. So we're kind of the match.com in the world of families of kids with disabilities. I like to say we do it better. We don't have an algorithm that we use. What we use is really that human connection. So at the foundation of our work is a peer-to-peer support. That's what I'm going to talk about mostly today.

But we also do have some other supports for families. You may have noticed that when Stacy introduced me, she introduced me as the director of Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania and Family Engagement Initiatives. And the reason for that is when I started with Parent to Parent, you might remember part of my story is I worked at the Office of Child Development and Early Learning. When I was there, I was involved in several other initiatives that supported families, and particularly families that had children with disabilities.

And when I moved into my role of the director of Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, I brought those initiatives over with me. I made a pitch to OCDEL and said, I really do feel like some of these other supports that you're funding that are the Family Engagement Initiatives that, as OCDEL, you've decided were worth your support, I really do think that if we move those under the umbrella with Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, they could be better coordinated.

We could provide easier access to families. And I think that having the Family Engagement Initiatives that the Office of Child Development and Early Learning, in particular the Bureau of Early Intervention Services and Family Supports, under one umbrella would really be beneficial to families in Pennsylvania.

So some of those other initiatives are parent cafes. There is a family-led entity that started in Illinois that developed a model called parent cafes. They are opportunities for families to come together. Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania offers these parent cafes virtually so families across the state can join.

And their focus is on helping families strengthen what's called protective factors. The long and short of it is we gather together in some facilitated conversations to talk about what makes us strong as family members. They are very unique.

Again, this model started in Illinois by a group of parents that learned about these things called protective factors. And they learned it through some professional development. Their state, Pennsylvania, also has done this, trained a lot of professionals on these ideas of protective factors. So what are the things that help keep families strong, even in the face of difficult circumstances?

And so the protective factors are research based. Lots of professional development has gone into folks that are supporting families of young children around learning these protective factors. This group of families in Illinois said this is really great information. This is really great training. I think families need to know this.

But families don't want to sit through your PowerPoint. Like, they don't want to sit through your workshop. They don't want to sit through your PowerPoint. I think we need to come up with a better way for families to really experience these protective factors. And they developed this idea of parent cafes.

So Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania is a host agency for parent cafes. We actually are hosting a series of parent cafes in the spring. And when I take a minute to pause, I'm going to put the flyer in your chat for you. And Stacy can send that out, along with the PowerPoint as well, for our first parent cafe of the spring. It's in April. I don't remember the date off the top of my head. But we would love for you to join us. So that is one of the other things that Parent to Parent does.

So if you're one of those folks that maybe a one-on-one match might feel a little bit too overwhelming, or you're not sure that's going to be your thing, if what you want to do is gather with some other families across the state, maybe parent cafes are for you. Personally, I suggest both. But find your own path. Take your own journey. But we would love to have you at one of our parent cafes.

The other initiative that I'm going to talk about is at the bottom, Parents as Partners in Professional Development, or P3D, because we love our acronyms. And Parents as Partners in Professional Development is a coordinated effort between the Office of Child Development, the Bureau of Early Intervention Services and Family Supports, so again, our state office, and Early Intervention Technical Assistance. They're another statewide arm of the Bureau of Early Intervention Services. And what their role is is to support professionals in the field of early intervention and/or early intervention programs.

So what we do with them is we support families to share their experiences, use their voice to influence and impact systems. That's a really big word and a big way of saying what we do is we help families share their stories and their experiences in a variety of ways, including around professional development, so helping make sure that when we are training professionals in early intervention, that family voice is part of that presentation, is part of that training.

We also make sure at our State Interagency Coordinating Council, or SICC, which is a governor-appointed body that advises the Bureau of Early Intervention Services and Family Supports around early intervention issues, that that meeting six times a year is started with a family story. So P3D is the entity or the initiative that helps makes sure that families have what they need so they can share their stories at the State ICC and other places.

We will be having an event. It is not planned yet. We are going to be having an event that will be a one-day event in Harrisburg this spring. So if you get involved with Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, you will find out about that event through communication that we share. And that will be a one-day event all around helping families to learn how to tell their stories. So that's P3D. So that's another thing that you can get connected with if you're connected with Parent to Parent.

And the last piece that I'll talk about quickly is Competence and Confidence Partners and Policy Making for Families of Children in Early Intervention, or C2P2EI. Competence and Confidence Partners in Policy Making for Families of Children in Early Intervention is a new program with Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, but it is not a new program. C2P2EI was run exceptionally well and with incredible success through the Institute on Disabilities for the first 25-plus years of its inception and has been supported by the Bureau of Early Intervention Services and Family Supports. Sorry, I'm losing my voice.

So when I moved over to Parent to Parent, I had been the liaison between our office and C2P2EI. What I can say is, having been that liaison for the 17 years that I worked at OCDEL, Temple did an amazing job. And one of the things that we know and that we saw is that families that were graduates of C2P2EI went on to do great things. The majority of folks that have been appointed to our State Interagency Coordinating Council as family members were C2P2EI graduates. Folks that were leading our LICCs were C2P2EI graduates.

So the program was incredibly successful in lots and lots of ways. One of the reasons, or really the only reason-- sorry-- why we move the program under Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania is really just to allow better collaboration and better communication between these other entities. So Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania is now the administrator. We're now the lead for C2P2 Early Intervention.

However, we continue to have a connection with Temple Institute on Disabilities. We have folks that still continue to present at C2P2 Early Intervention. And in addition to that, for those of you that may be on the cusp of leaving early intervention-- maybe you're looking to transition to school age, and I know Stacy has shared and probably will continue to share with you-- Temple Institute on Disabilities continues the foundational C2P2 course, which is Competence and Confidence Partners in Policy Making.

After you leave early intervention, you'll have an opportunity to participate in that course as well. And we strongly encourage our graduates at C2P2EI to continue on their leadership journey with that and continue that. So that's another opportunity that families that have kiddos in early intervention through Parent to Parent.

I'm going to stop and see if anybody has any questions about parent cafes, C2P2 Early Intervention, or P3D. I'm going to take some more water. And I am going to find my chat and see if I can put that--

STACY PHILLIPS: Roxana has her hand up. Go ahead, Roxana.

ROXANA: Hi, everyone. I was just curious. So I'm working with families who are navigating having their child being evaluated for potential services. Would they be able to attend a parent cafe? They don't have an official diagnosis. They just know that their child is struggling in elementary school. And we are providing some parent sessions for them. But I was curious if this is something that we could provide as a resource, the parent cafe.

SARAH HOLLAND: Yeah, so you're saying these are family members that have kiddos that are school age now?

ROXANA: Yes.

SARAH HOLLAND: Sorry. I'm doing two things at once, and I need to stop that. I just posted the flyer for the parent cafes. I would say that they are certainly welcome to join. I'm going to talk a little bit about the supports that we offer families of kids that are receiving early intervention services. So if families were to join us that do not have children receiving early intervention services, they would not be eligible for the additional supports that I haven't talked about yet, but I will in one second. But they would be welcome to join a virtual cafe.

ROXANA: Thank you.

SARAH HOLLAND: Sure. That was a long-winded answer to get to yes, but-- so for our programs-- except for our peer-to-peer support programs. So for parent cafes, for C2P2 Early Intervention, for Parents as Partners in Professional Development, we do offer supports for family members that have kiddos receiving early intervention services to participate in those activities. So we do offer childcare reimbursement if families need childcare to participate.

So during our parent cafes, again, if you have childcare, if you need childcare so you can fully participate in those cafes, even though they're virtual, you are eligible for childcare reimbursement if your child is receiving early intervention services. And when I say early intervention services, for those of you in Philadelphia, I mean, if your kiddo is getting support through ChildLink and/or Elwyn, that's early intervention. So you would be eligible for childcare reimbursement.

If you need to travel someplace-- so parent cafes are virtual. You don't need to travel for those. But the P3D event that I referenced isn't planned yet, but will be held sometime later in the spring. Mileage reimbursement is provided. Same thing for families that participate in Competence and Confidence: Partners in Policymaking, mileage reimbursement or travel. Some of our folks from Philadelphia take the train, so public transportation reimbursement is also eligible, as well as if you need to stay overnight.

So if it's an event that's an all-day event, and you need to travel in the night before, we provide lodging. That tends not to be a reimbursement. We tend to pay that up front because we know that lodging expenses are a lot, and a lot of families can't afford to put that money out and get reimbursed. So we tend to make those arrangements ourselves so that families don't have to pay for lodging. Other questions about the other things?

STACY PHILLIPS: This is Stacy. I do have a question. And you might get to this. So I'm just curious. With the peer-to-peer support, which I love that model-- I think it's wonderful-- how do you ensure that parents aren't giving other parents misinformation or disinformation? So how do you ensure that they are giving accurate information? Like, what type of training do you do with the peers before they're providing support?

SARAH HOLLAND: Yeah, those are really good questions. So I am going to talk more about peer-to-peer support. But you know what? I'll just answer that question now. So a few things-- one of the things that we do try to emphasize with peer-to-peer support-- I'm going to move it to the next slide-- is that this is another family member. You are not getting connected with a counselor. It's not a therapist. It is not a trained professional.

So one, I think one of the first things that we need to do is set expectations around what peer-to-peer support is. Peer-to-peer support is, again, another friend, another person who's been through a similar journey for you to be connected with. So one, I think the first thing that we try to do is set that expectation for everybody, both for the peers, for our peer supporters, as well as for the families coming into the system.

So peer-to-peer support is not a substitute, nor is it medical advice. It's not advice at all. So again, as a person seeking support, you need to make sure and understand what the benefits of peer-to-peer support is, but also what it's not. So that's the first thing.

We do not monitor the phone calls and those interactions once they happen. But what we do do is a few things. One, we make sure that we do follow-up with 100% of our matches. So if you are matched through our program, you will get a follow-up communication-- phone call, text, email, oftentimes all of the above-- from your regional coordinator, who's checking in to find out, how did that match go?

Did you get what you wanted? Do you have any concerns? Would you like another match? Was that match great, but you want another one because you have another issue that you want to talk about? So that's one way that we ensure that families are getting what they need out of the match is that follow-up.

Our peer supporters do have access to free training. So we do have a asynchronized-- so asynchronous, which is just a fancy word of saying it's online, and you can do it when you want to do it-- training for our peer supporters. And we do prioritize matching families with families that have done that training. So that's the other thing. So if you are a peer supporter, we strongly encourage that you do that training because part of that training goes over, again, what your role is.

So your role is to share information based upon your personal experiences. Your role as a peer supporter is not to share information based upon what somebody's friends of friends of cousins told you or what you googled and found. Your role, really, is to share from your own personal experience.

And as a person who's being matched with a peer supporter, that's what you're listening for, right? You want to be connected with somebody who has had some experiences on their own and that are able to share that experience. And then from your role, it's your role to decide, you know what? That sounds like something that I want to learn a little bit more about on my own. Or maybe that's a piece-- or that sounds like a resource that might be helpful to my family. I'm going to learn a little bit more about that.

So I think the first thing-- and that's a really great-- it's just a really great segue, Stacy, in terms of, so what is peer-to-peer support, and what isn't it? So again, this is not medical advice. It's not therapists. It's not the place where this family is going to be the one-- this peer supporter is going to be the one that's going to help you find every resource that you need. What they know and what they are being charged to do is to share their experiences that they have had with you.

At Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, we are able and we do provide some connection to some resources. Again, we are limited in that because our scope-- that just isn't our scope. We are not an information and referral agency. And the reason for that is information and referral agencies have very distinct roles. They're really important.

But it takes a lot of work, as Stacy sort of alluded to, of making sure that information is vetted, it's current, the organizations and resources do what they say they do. And that is not-- it's not where Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania's capacity is. So when we match you with another peer supporter, it's so that you can listen to them, hear their experiences, and so that, as a parent, you can think through, what can I learn from this other person's story?

What's more important, though, is not as much of what you can learn from them, but having another listening ear. And that's what we hear over and over and over again. And for anybody that has ever been through it through a challenging time in their life, which I think all of us have at one time or another, think about what gets you through it. Think about what is most helpful. And for many of us, it's just having somebody to listen, who understands. That is the power of peer-to-peer support.

So here's a few quotes from some of our folks that have been matched. Somebody said, I learned about different resources and just got some tips from parenting from somebody that was just really easy to talk to. One person said they've already reached out to their peer supporter multiple times, and she's helped me through multiple issues. She's fantastic.

So some of our matches are ongoing. So it is not uncommon-- it is very common that folks build a bond with their peer supporter, and they continue to talk to them over time. Sometimes families will call us, and they have a very specific thing that they're looking for information on. And once they have a chance to talk through that issue or talk through that concern, that was what they needed, and they move on.

I think for me, my son, over the course of his life, has had numerous surgeries, for example. When Ian had surgeries, I always wanted to talk to another parent who had been through the same surgery that I had been through. Some of those people I maintain connections with. And some of them, after the surgery happened, and we got through that recovery period, I didn't maintain those connections, not because they were bad, but because I got what I needed to out of that.

So that's the way we look at peer-to-peer support as well. The family that is looking for support is in the driver's seat in terms of what they want from that match and how long it lasts and what it looks like. Whether it's long-term, mid-term, short-term, that really is up to that family.

So just a little bit of data-- last fiscal year, we made over 1,000 matches, again, those one-to-one connections. We talked to a lot more families than that. But those one-to-one connections, we made over 1,000 matches. And we have over 1,000 active peer supporters. So again, that's how we're able to make those connections.

As you can imagine, with over 1,000 peer supporters, we know some of our peer supporters more than others. But we do updates for our peer supporters at least every other year. Most families get an update every year. So our regional coordinators are talking to our peer supporters on a regular basis. So we do have regular touch points with our peer supporters. We try to get them involved in our network in other ways.

So that is, again, one of the things that you get when you contact Parent to Parent is we know some of these folks that we're connecting you with. And we do follow-ups so that if it's not the right connection for you, we can make another one.

So we really are always looking for peer supporters. A couple other pieces about Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania and that peer-to-peer connection, you can be a peer supporter and also need support yourself. So it's not one or the other.

So maybe you're a parent, and you feel like, you know, I think I could share with another family about what I learned from my NICU stay, for example. But my kiddo's still really young, and I still need support myself. You could be a peer supporter.

And you could tell our regional coordinators, you know, I would feel comfortable talking to another family who also has a kiddo in the NICU because we lived through that, and I feel like I learned some things, and I would love to give back that experience. But at the same time, we're looking at another transition. And I could use some support during that transition as my kid goes to kindergarten or whatever it is. So what we know is at Parent to Parent, we all need a little bit of help sometimes.

And that really is, I think, where we come in. We come in, I think, to help parents start to build that network of support. If you found, as a parent, that you already have a network, but maybe you're going through something, and the folks that you've sort of built in your circle haven't had the exact experience that you're looking for, I think we could be a great fit for you. Oh, Michael, that's so wonderful to hear. Thank you so much for being a peer supporter.

So I'm going to take another pause, because I've been talking a lot, to see if there are any other questions at the moment.

STACY PHILLIPS: --Stacy. We do have a question in the room. Go ahead.

ISABEL: Hey, I'm Isabel. I'm one of the social workers at the Elwyn Family Resource Center. And I just was curious. Do you have other criteria that you use to match families with a partner? Is there like geographic criteria or matching a family's native language? Just sort of curious about that process a little bit.

SARAH HOLLAND: Great question. You know what? I'm going to see-- I'm going to move through a little bit to this slide because this might provide me some talking points and help you understand. That's a great question.

So when we're matching, what do we look for? So I said the first thing that happens is you'll be connected with one of our regional coordinators if you're looking for a match. And that regional coordinator-- this is important-- they will want to talk to you.

I know if any of you are like me-- and some of you may be, some of you may not be-- but I'm a little phone adverse. And by that, I will do many things to avoid talking on the phone. You can text me. You can email me. But you leave a voicemail, it might go into the ether, never to be. I might listen to it, but I may or may not return your call.

One thing that I do in setting expectations, because this is a really important piece of our peer-to-peer support program, our regional coordinators really do want to talk to you. And the reason why we want to talk to you is because what we know is that what's important to one family in terms of a match isn't going to be the same as another family.

So we try to get as much information from you. It's an intake. But hopefully, it should feel like a conversation. It's not going to feel like a social services intake, although we do need your demographic information. So we do look at things like location. Child's diagnosis is a big one. It doesn't have to be, but many families want to be matched with another parent who has a child with a similar diagnosis or the same diagnosis. So that's an area that we can match on.

We often use broad language, like family dynamics. So for example, if you're a single parent, maybe you want to talk to another single parent because you have some uniquenesses in your situation that you think that would be helpful. Maybe you're a grandparent who is either the primary caretaker of a child, or maybe you're not the primary caretaker, but you're really involved in your grandchild's life, and you want to learn how to support your son and daughter and your grandchildren. So we can match around those areas.

Sometimes families want to talk a little bit about the dynamic between their child with disability and other siblings. So again, some family dynamic issues. Language is also another area. A couple things we do have-- a bilingual Spanish-English peer supporter-- or excuse me, not peer supporter, regional coordinator.

So we do have a bilingual regional coordinator, again, for Spanish-speaking families. And we do have, and we're continuing to build, our network of families that speak Spanish as well as English, as well as other languages. So our peer supporters currently, we have 25 languages spoken, including Spanish, as well as other languages. So we do try to match by language as well.

We also have access to a national network. So in addition to our peer supporters in Pennsylvania, we have access to a national network through Parent to Parent USA. So that also helps us sometimes with languages if we don't have a particular language in Pennsylvania, or rare diagnoses is another reason why we often have to look outside of the state of Pennsylvania.

We do also have access to the Language Line. So this is not ideal or the primary way that we make matches. But all of our regional coordinators have access to the Language Line so we can have those initial conversations with families looking for support. But we can also provide our peer supporters Language Line access.

So if we do not have a peer supporter that speaks the language that you speak, we can give that peer supporter access to the Language Line so that they can still communicate with folks that speak other languages. Again, we try to first find somebody that speaks that other language. But if we can't, we do have that backup option of using the Language Line.

So again, what families feel is important to them in terms of the match is what we try to match on. And we do collect and-- we do try to collect a lot of information about our peer supporters. And again, we try to-- in the same way that we do that intake and we talk to our families that are looking for matches, we also try to talk to our peer supporters so we get a sense on, what are the areas that you would feel comfortable being a peer supporter for?

Because it's not just where I live and my child's diagnosis. It's often other things that peer supporters may feel. I really do feel like I can talk about this from my perspective and what I've been through. It's a great question. Any follow-up to that question, anything that I didn't answer? OK. Thanks. This slide also-- oh, another one?

STACY PHILLIPS: No, I was just asking if anybody else that was online had a question and wanted to put it in the chat or unmute.

SARAH HOLLAND: Thank you, Gail. Thanks so much for being a peer supporter. Love to hear that. This slide also-- back to Stacy's original question around, How do we support our peer supporters? here are some of the training topics that we offer our peer supporters. So our asynchronous-- our free online training has sections around process and procedure. So again, what's your role of being a peer supporter? What is it that we're asking you to do? Cultural humility, confidentiality, active listening, and self-care.

So avert your eyes as I go backwards. Here's one of our peer supporters, and just a little quote from her. This is Melissa. She's also a C2P2 Early Intervention graduate. She is also involved in our Parents as Partners in Professional Development work.

So what she said is that a her parent-to-parent match encouraged her to reach out to her peer supporter with some specific questions and begin developing a relationship in a new way. Melissa's story is interesting because her son has a pretty rare diagnosis. And so as a result, through some clinics and other things that her child participates in, she got connected to some other families whose kiddos had a similar diagnosis.

In addition to that, she was part of a Facebook group of these other families. So when she came in to C2P2 Early Intervention, I talked about Parent to Parent. And she thought, you know what? I'm going to give them a try, too. She reached out to Parent to Parent. And lo and behold, she got connected-- again, her child has a rare diagnosis-- got connected to another parent that she knew, that she had already known from this Facebook group.

But one of the things that she shared with me, though, after that was, you know, here, I've been interacting with this person for months now on this Facebook group. But being connected with them as a peer supporter was a very different experience. And it's one that I wouldn't have had if I hadn't called you and done this. Even though it was somebody that I already had access to, having that one-to-one connection, talking with them on the phone, and having just this one person that I could go back and forth with was a game changer for her.

So again, for those of you that already have developed some connections, I encourage you to continue those connections. I can guarantee you, Melissa, she's still on that Facebook group. She's still getting support from those other families as well. But I think her testimonial of the support that I got through Parent to Parent, that one-on-one connection, really was unique.

So if you're inclined to reach out to us, there are lots of different ways. You can call us toll free. Now that we all have cell phones, pretty much everything is toll free. But we do have a toll-free number. It's 1-888-727-2706. So you are always welcome to do that.

I would note our regional coordinators all work part time. So when you call that number, you'll be instructed-- and unfortunately, our phone tree is really long. I'm sorry about that. But you'll be instructed. There'll be a phone tree. And you'll be asked to enter a number for your region. So when you do that, you'll then get directed to your regional coordinator. You may need to leave a message. Please leave a message. I promise you they will hear it, and they will get back to you. So that's one way you can get in touch with us.

You could also email us info account, which is p2p-- the number 2-- p2pinfo@parenttoparent.org. But the easiest way to get to us is through our match form that's on our website. So I'm going to put our website in the chat.

And then I am going to stop sharing for a moment. See if I can reshare. You know what? I'm actually going to do something different. Hold on one second. I'm going to go to the main page of our website to show you how to get there. Here we go.

So if you are on our main page of our website-- so the easiest way to get in touch with us is to go to our website. And there are lots of different ways you can get to this form. You can go here, where it says Get Matched Form under Matches. If you scroll down on our website, there's another little interactive thing here, this little dragonfly thing. You can click on this. They all take you to the same place, which is this form.

It looks very boring, but when you fill out this form, this goes directly into our database. And it allows us to really quickly assign you to a regional coordinator. It also makes sure that we have the information that we need just to start that contact. The form is also available in Spanish. So if you click up here, if you would rather fill it out in Spanish, you can do that. And basically, we just need your name, contact information.

If there is a good time to reach you, it's really helpful if you let us know that because we will be getting in touch with you. You will first get an email from us that's basically alerting you. Like, hi, my name is so-and-so from our program. And then you will get a phone call from us. So your phone number-- email is really helpful for us to have.

And then, if you have a preferred contact method-- so again, if you want us to text you, we can text you. Again, eventually, we will want to talk to you if possible. It's not a requirement of our program. So if you really don't want to talk to us on the phone, that's OK. We'll get what we need from you. But just know it really is helpful for us to have a conversation with you.

So many of our coordinators will also will often set up, for lack of a better word, an appointment or a time for you. How about if I call you at this time? Would that be good for you? So no, you can also do that. If that works better for you, we are happy to do that. So all of our coordinators work at least three hours a week at night. So we can call you in the evening if that works better for you. So again, if you have a good time to reach you, let us know that. And then your address is helpful.

How can we help you? You don't have to fill this out. But if there's something specific that you're looking for, feel free to put it there. That helps. You have to click the "I'm not a robot" and make sure that you submit. If you don't hit Submit, we don't get it. So that is the easiest way to get in touch with us. But again, you can feel free to email us. You can feel free to call us.

Now I'm going to try to get back to my PowerPoint. We'll see how that goes. Oops, I need to do this. Any questions about how you can get in contact with us? Okey doke.

So some other things that we have available-- we do have a Facebook page. We also have an Instagram account. We have to update this. We do have an Instagram account as well. We would love for you to join us there. Our Facebook page-- we try to highlight our matches. We try to do a peer supporter highlight a few times a month so that you can get to know our peer supporters. When we have events, we always share those on our Facebook page. So that's also another way to get to know what's happening in Pennsylvania and with Parent to Parent.

We will also, from time to time, share information from other vetted organizations. So we don't share a ton of information from other organizations. But know that if we're sharing something from another organization that we know it's a high-quality organization. We know that they're there to support families. We know you're going to get good information from them, so one of the great reasons to join us on social media, again, Facebook or Instagram. Our website, I gave you a quick preview of that. We do have a website.

We do also have what we call rack cards. If you're somebody that is reaching out-- maybe you have a parent group or something else, and you want some more information for other families that you want to share-- feel free to let me know that. And we can get you what we call rack cards. They're just a little front-and-back brochure that has just our information on it. And those are free for folks.

You absolutely may crosspost from us. That is perfectly fine. Thanks for that question, Michael.

So I have a few more slides. But just to give you some idea of what happens when you call-- I think I've already talked about this. I'm actually going to share this one instead. It looks like this one's a little bit easier to read. So our process is when you make a referral, whatever way you make it, every referral is assigned to a regional coordinator. It is often the regional coordinator from your region, but know that we do work together as a statewide program.

So what that means is, as a program, we really do try to-- sorry, I'm just grabbing you back. I lost you for a second. I couldn't see you. We really do work together as a state. As I mentioned before, all of our regional coordinators are part time. So sometimes, because people are human, your coordinator in your region might be off for the week.

Well, we don't want you to hang out for a week, waiting for somebody to return your call. So we will assign you to somebody else in your region. But know that we work together. We talk to one another. We work together as a whole group.

So even when you make a referral, even if the person that's calling you back from our network isn't from where you live or isn't from your region, know that we work together as a statewide network. And so once the referral comes in, it gets signed to a regional coordinator. And again, we make those assignments not just based upon location, but also who's available.

So after that, the regional coordinator would be in contact with you within 48 hours. So within two business days, you should get a contact from a regional coordinator. That first contact may be an email. It often is an email, but in addition to that email, probably a phone contact as well. If you've put on your match form that you'd rather have somebody text you, they can text you. So again, that first contact is made.

Our regional coordinators make three attempts at contacting in three different ways at three different times. Before we move on, so know that if you reach out to us at Parent to Parent of Pennsylvania, we will reach out to you at least three times. They often do it a little bit more. If we don't connect with you, and if you don't call us back, then we assume maybe you're not interested at this time.

We will then mail you a letter in the snail mail to your home. We also email it to you that basically says, sorry we missed you, but we're still here for you. If you want to get in contact with us, here's how you can do that. So we really do work really hard to connect with all of the families that want to connect with us.

So after you get connected with a regional coordinator, like I said, they'll talk to you. They'll have a conversation with you. They'll learn a little bit about your family, what you're looking for in a match. And then they'll start searching. They'll use our database. We have a really robust database that allows them to search all of those 1,000-plus peer supporters to try to find the right match for you.

And then what they'll do is they'll confirm with the peer supporter after they found them that that peer supporter is able to be matched right now. Our peer supporters are all volunteers. Our peer supporters are all family members that have kids with disabilities. So sometimes we find a peer supporter, and it's not a good time for them to support right now. And that is perfectly fine. Then we'll find another peer supporter.

So once that connection is made, then our regional coordinators give you a little bit of time, usually about a week to make that connection. And then we start to follow up with you. If you've been matched by Parent to Parent, we really appreciate it if you can give us a little bit of feedback about how that match went. If it went well, of course, we want to hear that. Our regional coordinators, they really appreciate knowing that the work that they did was helpful.

But we also really appreciate if it wasn't, if it wasn't the right match. This is human work. And sometimes the connection may not be the right connection. That's OK. We want to hear that, too, so that we can have an opportunity to try again. There is no limit on the number of times that you can be matched by Parent to Parent, right?

So if you're matched this year, maybe that match worked great. You're really happy about it. But three years from now, you come into another situation. And you think, you know what? Parent to Parent was really helpful to me that first time. I'd like to get back in touch with them and try again. And you are welcome at any time to come back to us and have another match.

A little bit more about what our peer supporters have to say-- so happy that several of you are peer supporters. Thank you so much. Hopefully, in these quotes, you'll hear some echo of the reasons why you're a peer supporter. If you would like to consider being a peer supporter, you can feel free to use my contact information or the same information that I shared with how to be matched.

We do also, on our website, have sign-ups to be a peer supporter. So if you, right now, are feeling good with the support that you have in your life, but you think, I'd like to give back, I'd like to be that person for somebody else, and you want to be a peer supporter, you can call us. You can email the info account. You can go to our website.

And on our website, there are several different places where you can fill out a form to be a peer supporter. And again, same process. We'll contact you. We'll work to get a little bit of information from you around what you would like to support for and do that.

But our peer supporters have said they get as much out of being a peer supporter as they do from being matched. They really enjoy that process. They learn new things. Being able to give back is really important.

And I already talked a little bit about this, around who our peer supporters are. As I talk, as I answer questions, I'm going to leave this slide up for you. I'm not sure. Stacy, do you do an evaluation?

STACY PHILLIPS: This is Stacy. Yes, we do evaluations as well. I'm going to drop that in the chat in a moment. But we can do both. We can do yours and ours, if that's OK.

SARAH HOLLAND: No. No, no, no. No, please don't do both. I'm not going to put you all through that. Just do Stacy's, OK? So ignore this QR code. Just do Stacy's evaluation. I'm sure she'd be happy to share with me anything that you wanted to say. I don't want you to be-- I don't want you to have to do two evaluations.

STACY PHILLIPS: OK, I just put that in the chat. Sorry, it's the long version. I forgot to do the short version in there. You can click that link and fill out the brief evaluation. I want to say thank you very much, Sarah. I am going to stop the recording here. And then we can feel free to ask additional questions.