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For many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, navigating services can feel complex. Understanding eligibility, identifying useful resources, preparing for planning meetings, and building confidence in self-advocacy may require information that is difficult to find and apply.

Family and Peer Mentoring Supports offer a practical, relationship-based approach. Through shared experience, mentors can help participants and families better understand disability services, explore community resources, strengthen advocacy skills, and move toward personal goals.

HAVE Support (Housing, Advocacy, Vocational, and Employment Support Incorporated) provides person-centered disability services across Maryland. Our approach recognizes that each individual and family has different priorities, communication styles, support needs, and visions for the future.

What Are Family and Peer Mentoring Supports?

Family and Peer Mentoring Supports connect people with mentors who have relevant lived experience.

Family Mentoring is designed for a participant’s primary unpaid family support. A family mentor may have experience supporting a family member with an intellectual or developmental disability and navigating public programs, community resources, schools, health systems, employment services, or other supports.

Peer Mentoring is provided directly to the participant. A peer mentor is a person with an intellectual or developmental disability who can share practical insight from personal experience. Peer mentors may help participants build confidence, understand available options, communicate preferences, and pursue greater independence.

The Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration, or DDA, describes this service as a way to help participants and families learn about community services, programs, strategies, and resources beyond those offered through a DDA waiver.

Mentoring is not about telling a person what to do. It is about creating a supportive connection in which participants and families can make informed decisions and identify approaches that fit their goals.

How Mentoring Can Help Participants and Families

Family and peer mentoring may support individuals and families in several important areas.

Understanding Disability Services

Maryland’s developmental disability services system includes multiple programs, service models, and planning requirements. A mentor with relevant experience may help explain commonly used terms and processes in accessible language.

Depending on the individual’s circumstances, discussions may include:

  • DDA services and waiver pathways
  • Person-centered planning
  • Provider-led services
  • Self-directed services
  • Community resources
  • Employment and vocational supports
  • Residential and supported living options
  • Transportation and community participation
  • Respite and other family supports
  • Advocacy and communication with service teams

Mentors do not replace a Coordinator of Community Services, Support Broker, medical professional, attorney, or government agency. Instead, mentoring can help participants and families prepare questions, understand choices, and participate more confidently in conversations with their planning team.

Building Self-Advocacy Skills

Self-advocacy means expressing preferences, asking questions, understanding rights, and participating in decisions that affect daily life.

A peer mentor may help a participant practice:

  • Describing personal goals and support preferences
  • Asking for clarification when information is confusing
  • Preparing for a planning meeting
  • Identifying what is working and what needs to change
  • Communicating concerns respectfully
  • Making choices about routines, relationships, and community activities
  • Recognizing when additional support or clarification is needed

For families, mentoring may also strengthen advocacy skills. A family mentor can share practical strategies for organizing information, preparing for meetings, tracking questions, and communicating effectively with service professionals.

Identifying Practical Community Supports

DDA-funded services are only one part of the broader support network available to an individual. Mentors may help participants and families identify community resources that align with their needs and interests.

Examples may include:

  • Local recreation and inclusion opportunities
  • Transportation resources
  • Employment preparation programs
  • Educational or transition supports
  • Health and wellness resources
  • Social and peer networks
  • Housing-related information
  • Community-based activities
  • Benefits and public-assistance resources

The appropriate resources depend on the individual’s situation, location, age, goals, eligibility, and available funding. Mentoring can help families explore possibilities without assuming that a particular program or service will be available.

Strengthening Confidence and Resilience

Navigating disability services may involve applications, assessments, planning meetings, provider searches, authorizations, and changes in need. A trusted mentor can offer encouragement grounded in experience.

That connection may help participants and families:

  • Feel less isolated during challenging processes
  • Recognize personal strengths
  • Learn from strategies others have used
  • Approach planning conversations with greater confidence
  • Identify next steps when a process feels unclear
  • Build relationships with supportive community members

The goal is not to create dependence on a mentor. Effective mentoring promotes knowledge, confidence, and connections that help the participant and family move forward with greater independence.

Family and Peer Mentoring DDA Maryland: How Access Typically Works

Access to Family and Peer Mentoring Supports is not automatic. Eligibility, authorization, service amounts, provider availability, and funding depend on the person’s circumstances and current Maryland DDA rules.

A typical access process may include the following steps.

1. Discuss the Service With the Planning Team

The participant or family may raise interest in Family and Peer Mentoring Supports with the individual’s Coordinator of Community Services, often called a CCS.

The CCS helps facilitate person-centered planning and can explain how the service may relate to the participant’s goals, assessed needs, and existing supports.

2. Identify the Need Through Person-Centered Planning

The need for mentoring should be connected to specific goals and outcomes. The Person-Centered Plan, or PCP, should reflect why mentoring may be appropriate and how it can support the participant or the participant’s primary unpaid family support.

Possible goals may involve:

  • Learning how to access community resources
  • Developing self-advocacy skills
  • Understanding available service options
  • Strengthening family knowledge and confidence
  • Connecting with a person who has relevant lived experience
  • Supporting progress toward greater community participation

The service amount and frequency are not universal. They depend on the person-centered plan, assessed needs, authorization, applicable waiver requirements, and available funding.

3. Explore Other Available Funding Sources

Before DDA funding is authorized, the planning team may need to explore other appropriate funding sources. These may include Maryland Medicaid State Plan services, the Maryland State Department of Education, the Division of Rehabilitation Services, the Department of Human Services, private insurance, or other applicable programs.

When another resource is unavailable, inappropriate, or insufficient to address the participant’s documented needs, the planning team may need to record that information as part of the planning process.

4. Confirm Authorization and Service Delivery

Family and Peer Mentoring Supports must meet current DDA policy and waiver requirements before services begin. Maryland DDA’s current service information identifies Community Pathways Waiver access and lists self-direction through budget authority as an available option.

For self-directed services, the participant or representative takes an active role in arranging and directing approved supports. A Support Broker and other required partners may assist with decisions, planning, and coordination. HAVE Support offers information about self-directed services in Maryland and provider-led services.

Choosing a Family and Peer Mentoring Provider

When exploring a provider, participants and families should consider more than whether the provider offers mentoring. A strong match should reflect the participant’s goals, communication preferences, cultural considerations, and desired outcomes.

Important questions may include:

  • Does the provider have current DDA approval or certification required for the service?
  • Does the mentor have relevant lived experience?
  • Can the provider explain the difference between family mentoring and peer mentoring?
  • How does the provider support participant choice and confidentiality?
  • How will the mentor and participant communicate?
  • What happens if the match does not meet the participant’s needs?
  • How are goals, progress, and follow-up documented?
  • Can the provider coordinate appropriately with the participant’s planning team?
  • Is the provider able to serve the participant’s area and authorized needs?

DDA requirements may include provider application and approval, required training, background checks, references, First Aid and CPR certification, agreements with the Maryland Department of Health or DDA, and a signed Medicaid Provider Agreement. Requirements may differ depending on whether services are delivered by an agency or an individual mentor and whether the service is self-directed.

Families should confirm current requirements before making decisions. Provider approval does not guarantee a match, authorization, or immediate availability.

How HAVE Support Can Help

HAVE Support delivers comprehensive disability services through both provider-led and self-directed models. Our person-centered approach keeps the participant’s goals, preferences, strengths, and choices at the center of planning.

For individuals and families exploring Family and Peer Mentoring in Maryland, HAVE Support can help clarify:

  • How mentoring may relate to broader developmental disability services
  • The difference between family mentoring and peer mentoring
  • Provider-led and self-directed service models
  • The role of the PCP and planning team
  • Questions to discuss with a CCS or Support Broker
  • Considerations for selecting an appropriate provider
  • How mentoring may complement other authorized supports

HAVE Support does not promise eligibility, authorization, availability, or a particular service outcome. Those decisions depend on the participant’s planning process, assessed needs, current DDA requirements, approved funding, and provider capacity.

Take the Next Step Toward Informed Support

Family and Peer Mentoring Supports can help participants and families gain knowledge, build confidence, and connect with people who understand the disability services journey. With the right planning and provider match, mentoring may become a meaningful part of a person-centered support network.

To learn more about HAVE Support’s service models and request information about available supports, visit www.havesupport.org. You can also explore HAVE Support’s DDA Community Pathways Waiver information and additional support programs.