For more than a decade, we have been co-designing and implementing a parent peer workforce in early childhood intervention. This is a team of parents raising a child with a disability or developmental delay, who are trained to deliver programs and work alongside families and professionals at Plumtree. What began as a commitment to doing things differently within a community-based organisation has evolved into a sustained model of practice shaped by parents and practitioners together.
Our work has now been recognised internationally in the second edition of the Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Disability.
The benefits of parent peer work
A chapter based on Plumtree CEO Sylvana Mahmic’s PhD research, Powering Up Family Systems Using Systems-Informed Positive Psychology: Parent Peer Workers as Levers of Change, documents over ten years of co-design with families of children with disability. It outlines how a trained parent peer workforce can operate alongside non-peer professionals as a complementary part of the system.
Employing parent peers addresses a critical gap in early childhood intervention while enabling deeper participation and shared leadership. It also highlights the potential for effective use of government investment when families are engaged as active contributors within the system.
Although parent peer work is well established in sectors such as mental health and community health, it remains underdeveloped in early childhood intervention. Our experience shows that when families are supported by both professional expertise and trained parent peers, engagement shifts. Families often feel less alone, more confident and better able to shape the supports their children need.
A foundation to thrive together
A key framework underpinning this approach is systems-informed positive psychology. It addresses not only individual wellbeing, but also the conditions that enable families, professionals and communities to thrive together. Implementing a parent peer workforce in early childhood intervention shifts the focus from delivering services, to partnering with families as contributors and leaders within the system.
This publication reflects Plumtree’s ongoing commitment to co-design, family leadership and practice-based evidence developed within a community organisation alongside families. It contributes to growing recognition of parent peer work as one of the key levers of change in building more participatory, effective and sustainable systems of early childhood support in Australia and internationally.
To learn more about Plumtree’s parent peer programs and co-design, visit our webpage or contact us at info@plumtree.org.au.
✍️ Written by Sylvana, Plumtree CEO
