Peer Support Specialist Grant Application

Transform Mental Health Care with Peer Support Specialist Grant Funding

Peer support specialists bring unique value to behavioral health services through their lived experience with mental health or substance use challenges. If you're seeking grant funding to establish or expand a peer support specialist program, this comprehensive application template streamlines the process while ensuring you address all critical components funders look for.

Why Peer Support Specialists Matter

Peer support has become an evidence-based practice in mental health and addiction recovery services. Research consistently shows that peer support improves engagement, reduces hospitalizations, and enhances overall recovery outcomes. As healthcare systems increasingly recognize this value, grant opportunities for peer support programs have expanded—but securing funding requires a thorough, well-structured application that demonstrates both your program's impact potential and financial sustainability.

Built for Behavioral Health Organizations

This grant application template is designed specifically for mental health agencies, community health centers, nonprofit organizations, and healthcare providers looking to launch or scale peer support specialist programs. Whether you're applying for state mental health authority grants, federal SAMHSA funding, foundation grants, or Medicaid infrastructure awards, this form captures the information funders need to evaluate your program's viability.

The template emphasizes key components that distinguish successful peer support programs: robust certification training plans that meet state requirements, clear supervision structures that support peer specialists while maintaining fidelity to the peer model, integration with Medicaid billing systems to ensure program sustainability, and authentic incorporation of lived experience throughout your program design.

Comprehensive Application Sections

The form guides applicants through essential sections including organizational background and capacity, detailed program design and service delivery models, certification training curriculum and pathways, supervision and support structures, Medicaid billing integration plans, budget narratives and sustainability strategies, and outcome measurement approaches. Each section is designed to help you articulate not just what you'll do, but how your program will create lasting change.

For organizations new to peer support, the application helps structure your thinking around critical implementation factors. For experienced providers seeking expansion funding, it provides a framework to demonstrate your track record while articulating your growth strategy.

Streamlined with Paperform's Power

Creating this grant application in Paperform means you can customize the form to match your organization's branding while maintaining a professional, easy-to-complete experience for your team. The document-style editor lets you add guidance text, examples, and resources throughout the form to help applicants provide complete, compelling responses.

Conditional logic allows you to tailor follow-up questions based on program type, funding amount requested, or whether applicants are launching new programs versus expanding existing ones. This keeps the form relevant and focused for each applicant's situation.

Once submitted, you can use Stepper to automate your internal review workflow—routing applications to appropriate reviewers, sending status updates to applicants, scheduling interviews with promising candidates, and coordinating approval processes across your grant committee. Integration with project management tools like Notion or Airtable helps you track multiple applications through your review pipeline.

If you need applicants to sign grant agreements following approval, Papersign lets you convert approved applications into legally binding contracts with eSignature capabilities, creating a seamless process from application to award.

For Mental Health Agencies and Healthcare Providers

This template serves organizations across the behavioral health spectrum: community mental health centers establishing peer support as a new service line, hospitals integrating peer specialists into emergency departments or inpatient units, substance use treatment programs adding peer recovery support services, nonprofit organizations serving specific populations (veterans, justice-involved individuals, LGBTQ+ communities), health departments implementing state peer support initiatives, and managed care organizations developing peer specialist networks.

The emphasis on Medicaid billing integration acknowledges the financial realities of sustainable peer support programs. The application helps you demonstrate how you'll navigate credentialing, billing codes (particularly H0038 and related codes), supervision requirements for billing, and quality assurance processes that satisfy payer requirements while honoring the peer support philosophy.

Supporting the Peer Support Workforce

At its heart, this grant application emphasizes what makes peer support truly transformative: lived experience. The form includes sections specifically designed to capture how your program will recruit, train, support, and sustain peer specialists with authentic lived experience, while avoiding the burnout and tokenization that can undermine peer programs.

Questions about training plans ensure alignment with state certification requirements and national peer support competencies. Supervision structure questions help you articulate how you'll provide effective oversight that supports peer specialists without replicating traditional hierarchical models that may conflict with peer principles. Cultural responsiveness and diversity considerations ensure your program will serve your community's full spectrum of experiences.

Get Started with Your Grant Application

Whether you're pursuing your first peer support grant or your tenth, having a structured, professional application process positions you for success. Paperform's flexibility means you can adapt this template as you learn what works, adding sections for specific funders or removing elements that don't apply to your context.

With Paperform's SOC 2 Type II compliance, you can confidently collect sensitive information about organizational capacity, financials, and program participants. Role-based permissions let you involve multiple team members in the application process while controlling who can access completed submissions.

Start building your peer support specialist program today with a grant application process that's as thoughtful and person-centered as the services you're seeking to fund.