Get Involved
Contact & Partnership
MAPS begins as a coalition. Founding partners help shape scope, governance and priorities before services begin.
Call to Collaborate
Convene the founding taskforce.
MAPS begins as a coalition. We invite partners across Baltimore to form a founding taskforce that closes the gaps in the peer workforce — and builds lasting longevity and safety for Peer Support Workers.
Together we start with one taskforce — mapping the workforce gaps and advancing shared strategies that keep Peer Support Workers safe, supported, and in the field for the long term.
Founding partners help shape scope, governance, and priorities.
We’re Inviting to the Table
Who the taskforce is for.
Mayor’s Office Departments
MABPCB
Peer-Serving Organizations
Peer Workforce Leaders
Employers of Peer Staff
Named organizations are those MAPS intends to invite. Listing an organization here does not imply it has agreed to participate, and inclusion does not imply endorsement or partnership.
Contact
How to reach us.
Contact is by email. Write to admin@mdpeeradvocate.org and tell us which of the four partnership roles fits — funder, legal and policy, peer leader, or institution — or simply describe what you are working on.
If you need help now
MAPS does not provide crisis response and its services have not yet begun. For immediate support contact 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), or emergency services if there is immediate danger. For Maryland resource navigation, 211 Maryland operates statewide.
Founders
Who is behind MAPS.
- Chris‑De‑Vaun R. Odenkyem‑Wade — Co‑Founder & Lead Organizer
- Marcus Parker‑Wade — Co‑Founder
Stay Connected
Not ready to write yet?
Plenty of people want to follow this before they commit to a conversation. The mailing list is for that. We write when there is something worth saying — the survey findings, the pilot launching, ways to take part — and not otherwise.
It is the same list whichever page you join from, and joining it is not a partnership enquiry. If you want an actual conversation, email admin@mdpeeradvocate.org instead — or do both.
Your address is kept until you unsubscribe, and is never shared or sold. Unlike email you send us and survey answers — both deleted after about six months — a mailing list address is held until you ask us to remove it. How we handle your information.
Straight Answers
Questions we get asked.
The questions that come up most often, answered without hedging more than the facts require.
Is MAPS a union?
No. MAPS is a workforce research and training initiative. It does not bargain collectively, negotiate contracts, or represent workers in labor proceedings.
Where MAPS uses the phrase “collective action,” it means organized advocacy and workforce voice — not collective-bargaining authority, which MAPS does not hold.
Does MAPS decide ethics or credential cases?
No. MAPS has no credentialing or enforcement authority. Employers, regulators, certification bodies, and courts retain every decision.
MAPS does not take complaints or support anyone through an ethics or disciplinary process. What it does is prepare peers for the credential itself — including the ethical responsibility domain, which is the largest of the four at 16 hours — so that fewer problems start with nobody having explained the standard.
Is this legal advice?
No. MAPS publishes research and convenes training. Nothing it produces is advice applied to an individual’s facts, and it does not advise peers on workplace disputes at all.
This is a hard boundary rather than a disclaimer. MAPS is not a law firm, does not represent anyone, and will not tell a peer which claim they have.
Where does MAPS stand legally today?
MAPS is incorporated as a Maryland nonstock nonprofit corporation, holds an EIN, and has applied to the IRS for recognition as a 501(c)(3) public charity. That determination is pending and is not guaranteed.
Until the IRS determination arrives, early work is planned under fiscal sponsorship with an established 501(c)(3) partner, so that grants can be received and staff supported in the interim. The sponsorship arrangement is being set with counsel and a candidate sponsor has not yet been confirmed.
Who controls MAPS?
Peers. A 60% peer board floor is written into the adopted MAPS bylaws, and operates alongside a steering committee for as long as a fiscal sponsor holds control of funds. Funders and employers hold no reserved seats.
Organizational members cannot control peer elections or the findings MAPS publishes.
Is what I share confidential?
MAPS protects information rigorously, but no legal privilege attaches to peer conversations and records can be subject to legal process. We tell peers that plainly rather than over-promising.
MAPS will operate a written retention and destruction schedule and disclose these limits before a peer shares anything sensitive.
Who can MAPS help?
The Baltimore City pilot is built for Certified Peer Recovery Specialists, peers working toward certification, and the supervisors and organizations that employ them.
Services do not begin until insurance is bound and scope boundaries have been through Maryland counsel review. Until then, the most useful thing a peer can do is complete the workforce survey, which shapes what gets built first.
Answers reflect the proposed model and remain subject to community validation, Maryland counsel review, and partnership agreements.
A Stronger Peer Workforce Creates a Stronger Recovery System
Stronger peers.
Stronger peers.
Stronger recovery.
Maryland asks Peer Recovery Specialists to carry significant responsibility. MAPS is being built to find out what that workforce needs to do it well, and to put on the training that answers it.
