1.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY SUPPORT SERVICES FROM
A LIVED EXPERIENCE
SOURCE: New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) & Families Together in New York State (2014). New
York State Family Peer Support Service definition Albany: NYSOMH
1
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY SUPPORT SERVICES FROM A LIVED EXPERIENCE
The Tamarack Institute is a nonprofit organization (NGO) headquartered in Ontario,
Canada. Tamarack Institute utilizes the Collective Impact Approach framework as the
foundation for making significant social impact community changes. In their recent
white paper entitled “Authenticity of Community Engagement” it asserts that there are
two things that make community engagement authentic: education and empowerment.
(Website: www.tamarackcommunity.ca )
As part of their community engagement work, the Tamarack Institute deploys “Context
Experts” within its implementation of their Collective Impact approach. They define
“Context Experts” as “people with ‘lived experience’ of the situation, including children
and youth and they represent people who experientially know about the issue.”
For nonprofit management practitioners, embedding “Context Experts” as a vital
member throughout their management and programmatic workforce is an excellent
one. Especially when agency goals and performance benchmarks are targeted and
focused to really make a difference in strengthening families and our communities.
Within this foundation, agency team members can provide high quality social impact
services whereby quality of life indicators are improved and families can thrive.
When agencies truly work together by breaking down “silos” and/or other infrastructure
barriers, there can be an array of social justice, behavioral health and other human
services programming offered across the Continuum of Care (CoC) service delivery
system.
FAMILY PEER SUPPORT SERVICE (FPSS) DEFINITION:
In 2014, the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) and Families Together,
developed and define Family Peer Support Services-(FPSS) as “an array of formal and
informal services and supports provided to families raising a child up to age 26 who are
experiencing social, emotional, developmental and/or behavioral challenges in their
home, school, placement, and/or community.”
“The purpose of these services is to support the parent/family member and enhance
their skills for the benefit of the child/youth and foster positive youth functioning to
strengthen their child’s ability to live successfully within their community.” Family Peer
Support Services are delivered between the Family Peer Advocate and the parent/family
member to promote a strength-based relationship.

2.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY SUPPORT SERVICES FROM
A LIVED EXPERIENCE
SOURCE: New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) & Families Together in New York State (2014). New
York State Family Peer Support Service definition Albany: NYSOMH
2
A family peer support provider with solid service capacity can offer all six categories of
services based upon the dynamics of individual needs and preferences of the family. The
six types of Family Peer Support Services are as follows:
1) Outreach and Information
2) Engagement, Bridging and Transition Support
3) Self-Advocacy, Self-Efficacy and Empowerment
4) Community Connections and Natural Supports
5) Parent Skill Development
6) Promoting Effective Family Driven Practice
To provide family peer support services, the individual must be credentialed by the State
of New York as a “Family Peer Advocate (FPA) and one of the eight main qualifications
required is to “Demonstrate ‘lived experience’ as the parent or primary caregiver who
has navigated multiple child serving systems on behalf of their child(ren) with social,
emotional, developmental, health and/or behavioral healthcare needs”.
After reading the material, I reflected upon my own ‘lived experience’ as a 14-year-old
within my own family, you see, my parents married young at the age of seventeen during
the summer of 1954 and I was born a year and a half later as the eldest out of four
children born to their union.
However, because they were so young and lacking experience, preparation combined
with other tumultuous family background issues, I was put in charge of my siblings at an
extremely early age and I was a very obedient child like a “little soldier”. I have many
fond and scary childhood memories but one out of many that sticks out was being left
alone when I was only 7 years old to watch my 5-year-old sister and my baby sister who
was under 1 years of age and amazingly at that time, I was not afraid so when my baby
sister woke up from her nap and starting crying, I really did know what had to be done.
Back then, my maternal grandmother lived next door to us and when she heard my
sister crying, she knocked on the door to come in and get my sister.
But you see, my mom didn’t leave instructions for me to “open the door” and many
months earlier I had been disciplined for opening the door and allowing another family
member to come into our home.
So, this time, it wasn’t happening and the more that my grandmother now “pounding on
the door” the more determined I became to comfort and take care of my baby sister. I
yelled back to my frantic grandmother, “Don’t worry, I know what to do!” and I did.
This was 1962 and the new Playtex bottle system with attachments were in vogue, I
poured the formula mixture into the bottle and instead of warming the bottle in the pot
of boiling water on the stove, I got up on a chair and took the bottle and put in a cup and
let the hot running water gently warm the formula. I tested the formula on my forearm
and then jumped down, fed my sister and changed her diaper. My baby sister
immediately went back to sleep.

3.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY SUPPORT SERVICES FROM
A LIVED EXPERIENCE
SOURCE: New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) & Families Together in New York State (2014). New
York State Family Peer Support Service definition Albany: NYSOMH
3
Eventually, my mother arrived back home only to find her mother (my grandma) totally
unglued because my baby sister had stopped crying and I continued in my refusal to
open the door. Now I didn’t get a spanking because after all I did obey my mom’s
instruction’s.
This would be one out of many more occasions where I was left in charge and with that
came more responsibilities, like cooking and cleaning and mopping and waxing the
floors, washing the kid’s clothes and laying out school clothes for the next day and so
forth and so on. And yet despite the family tumult, I still felt very much loved by both
my parents and during good times, I was showered with wonderful gifts during
Christmas and other holidays and birthdays. I wanted to be a scientist, so I received a
microscope, telescope, chemistry set and tape recorder, I had my “Polaroid Swinger”, a
Smith Corona electric typewriter and my 12’ black & white TV for my bedroom. I
participated in science fairs which my Dad helped me with and I even accelerated a
grade level during elementary school despite moving constantly. I attended four to five
different elementary schools only to graduate from the 1st school that I started
kindergarten in.
But the main thing that bothered me the most was when my parents argued and fought
and boy did they have some fights (both my parents had strong personalities and a very
strong work ethic) and somehow to this day, I still cannot explain it but I became some
form of a “third” or surrogate parent that came along side to help them.
Now fast forward to the summer of 1970 when I was a 14-year-old just before I started
the 10th grade and I couldn’t take the chaos any longer, my nerves were jittery and I
couldn’t sleep. I told my mom and she called the doctor who came to our home and he
examined me and asked me if I took any illicit drugs? When I told him that I hadn’t then
he recommended to my mom that she take me to the Child Guidance Center located at
East 22nd Street for mental health counseling.
It was during one of the few family sessions that we (me and my Mom & Dad) attended
with two psychologists where I had an “Ah ha” moment or an epiphany that I was okay
and that my parents needed to allow me to be a kid not a “mini adult”. (Read the June
2017 Georgetown Law Center 24-page report entitled “Childhood Interrupted: The
Erasing of Black Girls Childhood”- www.law.georgetown.edu ).
It was also during our brief therapy sessions that my mother had an epiphany that she
needed to let me go and become “Cassondra”. It was obvious to my family that they
could see my potential so when I asked my mother to submit a special transfer to allow
me to attend a different high school, she did!! I got my 1st job at 15 years old working at
the former “Royal Castle”, my mom was my driving coach and I got my driver’s license
driving our Buick 225 family car. I would become the 1st high school graduate in the
family and before I started the 12th grade I announced that I was going to Kent State
University with my mom becoming #mybiggestsupporter and I still recall with fondest

4.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY SUPPORT SERVICES FROM
A LIVED EXPERIENCE
SOURCE: New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) & Families Together in New York State (2014). New
York State Family Peer Support Service definition Albany: NYSOMH
4
our first drive to Kent, Ohio to attend the August 1973 parent-student orientation
session when we made a wrong turn off Route 43.
In all, there were good and bad times and my family needed family support services,
those two to three family group therapy sessions were essential and the love of my
parents, a good high school with some of the best classmates (Collinwood High School-
Class of 1973 despite school race riots) we still all managed to work through those
tumultuous times but take it from me family support services combined with family
love, empowerment, community engagement, access, advocacy, my soft and hard skills
training and education enabled me to achieve significant youth development
benchmarks and I was encouraged to fly!