Lindsay Shea, CAPS Program director
A new project will bolster an autistic peer support program model designed to boost community participation among young adults with autism.
The Policy, Analytics and Community Research program at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, in partnership with Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion, launched the Community Autism Peer Specialist (CAPS) program.
Supported through a National Institute of Mental Health grant, CAPS will engage autistic adults to enhance and evaluate a peer-support program and expand it in Philadelphia.
The project will fill a void for autistic adults who age out of the services provided through the education system but need ongoing support. It also creates an opportunity for autistic adults to share skills and experiences they have acquired while navigating life in the community.
“Peer support has the unique quality of being a professional service that is personal in nature,” says Aliki Koumenis, project coordinator at the institute’s Policy, Analytics and Community Research program. “As someone who has been on both sides of giving and receiving this type of support, I have experienced the shared connection, empathy and empowerment that comes from connecting with someone else who can relate.”
An advisory board including autistic individuals, CAPS graduates, peer specialists, family members and the research team will guide all aspects of the research. Two part-time CAPS peer specialists will be hired from a pool of CAPS graduates. Northeast Treatment Center, a nonprofit agency that provides trauma-informed behavioral health and social services, will host the study, one of the first of its kind.
“This is also a potentially innovative funding strategy that employs autistic adults, where we know employment outcomes must improve,” says Lindsay Shea, leader of the Policy, Analytics and Community research program in the Autism Institute and the project’s director.
“Our work with autistic adults will pave the way to expanding additional service options and employment opportunities that we often hear from autistic adults are desperately needed.”
The research team is currently recruiting autistic individuals, 18–30 years old and living in Philadelphia, who are Medicaid eligible for the study and reflect the city’s racial and ethnic diversity.