Request For a Parent Match

The Parent to Parent Match is made between Supporting Parents and Referred Parents and is described as the following:

Supporting Parents are volunteers who are personally well adjusted and have a child with a special need (medical, developmental, emotional, learning). Supporting Parents are required to wait a year from their own child's diagnosis before they can become a Supporting Parent . Some of them have attended a day-long skill building training to familiarize themselves with basic principles of Parent to Parent, peer-help skills and community resources. Supporting Parents do not provide formal counseling, but do offer encouragement, emotional support, and information on an informal and personal basis. Supporting Parents do not give advice. They may outline options, share practical tips, or suggest some problem solving strategies--all things that may have worked for them--but they leave the final decisions up to the Referred Parents. Supporting Parents understand--from their own experience--that support, information, and access to resources are vital components in the ongoing adjustment to parenting a child with special needs. Referred Parents are parents who have recently learned that their child has a special need, or their child may be going through a transitional period which brings unknown challenges to the parents. These times are ones where the connection with another parent "who has been through it" become most helpful and valuable.

The Match is made by the state or the regional coordinator who connects with a possible Supporting Parent to learn of their personal time and energy and willingness to provide support to the Referred Parent. Matches are made on the basis of similarity of special need, the age of the child, geographical location, and other relevant factors. If presently available, the Supporting Parent is given the name and phone number of the Referred Parent. Initial contact is made as soon as possible, hopefully within 24 hours of the request. The number and length of contacts depends entirely upon what is decided and negotiated between the two parents. Some contacts are only a few; others last a lifetime.

All information given to Parent to Parent is kept confidential.

If you would like to be matched with a Supporting Parent to talk about your child's special needs, please fill out the form below and then click on the Submit button. The Parent to Parent of New Hampshire Coordinator will be in touch with you ---very soon. But if you want to talk directly, please call 1-800-698-5465.