August 27, 2025 Meeting Minutes - Parent To Parent Pennsylvania
- PALS
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
PALS Meeting Minutes
August 27, 2025 9:30 a.m.
Virtual Meeting using Zoom
Guest Speaker Mirella Roman-Molina
We welcomed Mirella Roman-Molina, Bilingual Regional Coordinator for Parent To Parent of Pennsylvania. Mirella shared an overview of how Parent To Parent PA supports families here in our region, across the state, and their connection nationally. The goal of P2P is to connect families with loved one with a disability or special need to ensure no one is alone in their journey. Mirella and her colleagues throughout the state are all parents of children or adults with a disability or special need, making the support offered by P2P unique from the very beginning. Mirella shared how she started her relationship with P2P as a "Matched Parent", one seeking support, leading to becoming a volunteer "Peer Support Parent", and ultimately applying for part-time employment when her current position became available.
For over 25 years, P2P has provided support for thousands of families. P2P currently has 1,160 active peer support members, speaking 25 languages. Translation services are offered if a spoken language match cannot be made with a peer support member. Supporters include parents, grandparents, and siblings. Free training is provided for all peer supporters. There were 1029 successful matches in the 2024–2025 fiscal year.
P2P is a publicly funded program under the Pennsylvania Departments of Human Services and Education. There is no age requirement to receive support services or be a supporter.
The process for receiving support is in control of the parent looking to be matched:
Referral - from a professional or the parent themselves. The only requirement on the electronic intake form is an e-mail address (a first name would be nice, but not required). You can give as little or as much information about yourself, your family, your needs as you like, at any time.
Contact - a P2P coordinator is assigned to the family. The P2P staff work on a part-time basis and their goal is to make contact within 48-hours of the referral being made.
Intake - the assigned P2P coordinator gathers more information from the referred parent. As with the Referral process, the referred parent controls the information shared.
Search - Utilizing the information provided by the referral, P2P staff use their confidential database of volunteer peer supporters to look for a potential match. Peer supporters receive free training and frequent check-ins to ensure they are in a place to provide the support at the time it is needed.
Connection - P2P staff introduce the match parent with the peer support parent.
Follow Up - P2P staff frequently check-in with the match parent and peer support parent to make sure the match is successful.
Click to expand or download the flyers.
Parent to Parent has a few other organizations under its umbrella.
C2P2 EI
Funded by Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning
with support from Temple Institute on Disabilities, Competence and Confidence Partners in Policymaking (C2P2 EI) is a leadership development training program designed for families with children receiving Early Intervention/Toddler or Preschool services (birth to five years of age). Participants make a commitment to attend eight sessions of training, a mix of in-person and virtual sessions. Participants learn about Early Intervention services, connect with other families, and build skills to advocate for their families needs.
Be Strong Families
Be Strong Families is a national non-profit organization that has been preventing child abuse and neglect through community-based, peer-to-peer activities since 2012. BSF partners with organizations, government, parents, and youth to reweave the fabric of society, one conversation at a time. P2P of Pennsylvania and BSF work together offering virtual networking events with their Care Series for families with children receiving Early Intervention Services and/or Home Visiting Family Supports.
Click to expand or download the flyers.
Parents as Partners in Professional Development (P3D)
P3D brings together families of children receiving Early Intervention or Family Support Services. Family members share their experiences to improve training and resources. P3D promotes connections between families. Complete the P3D Sign-up Form to be added to the database and receive information about how you can contribute to professional development and pre-service learning and participate in family engagement, leadership development, informational sessions, and networking events.
Download the entire Parent To Parent Presentation Below
If you participated in today's meeting, please complete the survey for Mirella.
Contact Mirella Roman-Molina at mmolina@parenttoparent.org.
O'Hara Elementary Back to School Social
PALS was delights to have a table at the O'Hara Elementary PTO's Back to School Social on August 19, 2025. John of John's Funky Inflatables joined in on the fun, providing us with a few inflatables for the event.
Stop By and Say Hello
PALS will be at the 2nd Annual River Academy of Excellence Trunk-or-Treat event, Saturday, October 18, 2025 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.. Stop by and learn more about River Academy of Excellence, River Therapies, and PALS.
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PALS Calendar of Events
PALS shares notices for many in-person and virtual events from local, regional, and national organizations, including webinars, support groups, research opportunities, and activities for children and teens. Updated weekly, the PALS Calendar is a valuable resource. Please email your additions to palsfcinfo@gmail.com.
Next Meeting: September 24, 2025 9:30 a.m. Virtual Meeting using Zoom.
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