Taking the First Steps Together: A Guide to Creating Collaborative Peer-Led Services for Parents Affected by Substance Use

This comprehensive guide highlights our learnings from creating a strengths-based, person-centered, and trauma-informed program to serve families impacted by parental substance use across Massachusetts. We share best practices for offering peer-led home visits, clinical counseling, community engagement, care coordination, and concrete resources. We include many helpful tools and resources for agencies to use in implementing these approaches within their own organizations.

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Family Portfolio

The FIRST STEPS: My Family Portfolio was designed by parents in recovery to help other parents through their recovery and parenting journeys. It includes tools for wellness planning and recovery maintenance, goal setting, parent child activities, tips for advocacy, and supports specific to non-custodial parents. We hope this resource will strengthen parents’ recovery capital and parenting skills, to the benefit of the whole family.

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Provider Guide

The FIRST STEPS: My Family Portfolio Provider Guide can help providers walk alongside families as they complete their portfolio. This Provider Guide explains how to help support parents as they complete each tool and includes Language for Advocacy and Collaboration which gives suggestions on how to communicate with other service providers around the family’s recovery and parenting strengths, concrete needs, and progress.

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