Build Better Bridges with Peer Support Specialists

Peer Support Specialists provide Medi-Cal billable services that enhance client engagement, build trust with our most vulnerable populations, and deliver culturally responsive, recovery-oriented care. By leveraging their own lived experiences, their unique approach to care improves health outcomes for Californians.

Lived Experience: Empowering Authentic Change

Former foster youth share their journeys from system-involved teenagers to empowered Peer Support Specialists.

Foster youth carry unique lived experiences that can become their greatest professional strengths. iFoster recognizes this potential by training former foster youth and connecting them with behavioral health organizations for employment opportunities.

The iFoster Jobs Peer Support Specialist Program creates certified pathways for former foster youth to turn their experiences into professional qualifications – without requiring traditional degrees. By offering comprehensive support, training, and direct connections to employers, this program ensures that former foster youth gain the skills and experience needed for long-term career success.

iFoster graduates have gone on to work in peer support fields

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Foster youth are not experts in the system. We're experts in how to navigate the system."

Tyree Crawford, iFoster Member Specialist

Discover how you can leverage Peer Support Specialists in your organization

Join us in supporting this movement to value lived experience as essential expertise and create authentic change for both foster youth and systems.

Become an iFoster Employer Partner

Leverage our program to hire peers and make a profound community impact.

Interested in joining, but don’t know where to start? iFoster works with you on funding streams, billing, and more.

Fund This Work

Your support is the catalyst for change. With every stipend hour funded, you’re building skills, fostering confidence, and paving the way for a young person’s lifelong success.

Advance Policy in This Work

Join us in advocating for policies that create sustainable pathways to employment, ensuring every foster youth has the opportunity to thrive.

Partner with iFoster to help build a workforce of compassionate, effective Peer Support Specialists. Fill out the form below to learn more about the iFoster Jobs Program.

Join us in supporting this movement to value lived experience as essential expertise and create authentic change for both foster youth and systems.

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California is facing a behavioral health workforce shortage

The Steinberg Institute, a leading voice in California behavioral health policy, recognizes the importance of investing in Peer Support Specialists to empower foster youth and grow the behavioral health workforce. The Institute helped pass Senate Bill 803, which established California’s Peer Support Specialist program. iFoster has partnered with the Steinberg Institute to build on this work and expand the number of certified Peer Support Specialists statewide.

About iFoster

iFoster is a national nonprofit that helps foster children and youth get the resources and opportunities they need to succeed as adults. Each year, they provide over $324 million in resources to connect kids in the foster care system with the products, services, knowledge, and supportive adults who can best help them reach their full potential.

About the Steinberg Institute

The Steinberg Institute is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming California’s mental health and substance use care systems. Since its founding in 2015, they have driven significant improvements in California behavioral health policy, working to ensure that statewide solutions work in communities of every size. Their Vision 2030 Initiative aims to strengthen what works and fix what’s broken in our behavioral health system through rigorous research, advocacy, and implementation.