Building Relationships: A Look at CAARES’ Peer2Peer Student Connection Program 

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — April 21, 2025) Since its inception at Empire State University in 2020, the Center for Autism Advocacy: Research Education, and Supports (CAARES) has worked toward fostering inclusive environments for Autistic and neurodivergent people. One shining example? The organization’s creation of the Peer2Peer Student Connection Program, which pairs undergraduate and graduate students with trained mentors.  

“So much of the feedback from neurodivergent folks in higher education spaces is just the importance of feeling like they’re seen and understood and belong,” says Lauren Allen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Applied Behavior Analysis program and the assistant director of CAARES. “Peer mentorship programs and having opportunities to build those relationships with other people who are experiencing similar things are really important.” 

Open to all students regardless of neurotype—including those who identify as neurodivergent but lack a formal diagnosis—the Peer2Peer program strives to offer participants social support as a means of enhancing their experience at the university while also bolstering retention. Both mentees and mentors receive training for the program, with mentees learning more generally about roles, expectations, and boundaries, as well as who they’ll interact with and how. Mentors, or facilitators, meanwhile, receive more comprehensive instruction on topics including appropriate terminology and how to serve students who may be in crisis.  

“It’s not too intensive,” Allen adds. “It’s really just the idea of ensuring people feel like they know what to expect and … also know that we’re always here to support.” 

The way participants are paired up in the Peer2Peer program is just as thoughtful. While it’s common in programs like this to see a neurotypical mentor partnered with a neurodivergent mentee, the CAARES Peer2Peer initiative—which marks one year at SUNY Empire this spring—has intentionally avoided that dynamic.  

“It creates a very weird hierarchy. It’s like saying the way that I do things is right, and the way that you do things isn’t,” Allen explains. “So we really wanted to just throw that out the window and say anybody can be anything.” 

Program associate and training coordinator Aley O’Mara, Ph.D., who joined SUNY Empire as the first full-time CAARES staff member in December 2024, agrees. 

“We’re really trying to use this non-hierarchical model where everybody has expertise to contribute to that mentorship relationship,” they say. “And we’re really eager to recruit more people to be facilitators and more folks to be mentored within the program.” 

Growing the number of Peer2Peer participants is a primary goal for the CAARES team, which has focused on providing more student-focused programming in general over the last year. Students who are interested in contributing as either mentees or facilitators are encouraged to fill out the program’s recruitment survey. Allen and O’Mara add that they’re also available to answer any questions submitted to autism@sunyempire.edu. 

“Our goal is to be fully neuro-inclusive,” O’Mara reiterates. “Everybody’s welcome to participate and get something from the experience.”