When Sonya Johnson, CRPS-A, first meets many of the parents she’ll be working with, it’s at perhaps the worst moment of their lives: the “shelter hearing.” That’s when a judge decides whether a child who has been removed from their home can safely be returned or should remain in some form of protective custody.
Sonya is there as a peer mentor, introduced by the court to parents who’ve just entered the child-welfare system. She’s someone who can help a parent in crisis begin to understand what’s happening and then walk with them on the long road to safe reconnection with their children.
“You’re talking about a parent who is experiencing a significant amount of trauma and shame and guilt,” she says. “They came into the system because they experienced challenges, so they’re also dealing with substance abuse or mental-health challenges or a domestic-violence situation. Now they’ve entered a legal system they have to navigate too.”
Nathan Scott, a local child-welfare professional with the Florida Department of Health (DOH), says, “Sonya lets them know they are not alone, that she has been through this before, and that there is hope for them to be reunified with their child.” And she knows that not only because she has stood beside many birth parents in this situation, but because she has stood in their shoes too—and she made it to the other side.
Looking for hope
Sonya’s official title is Adult Peer Programs Manager for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Sarasota and Manatee Counties. There she leads a program called Parents for Parents (P4P), which offers peer mentoring for families involved in the dependency court system. That’s the specialized court that handles cases involving child abuse and neglect, foster care, and termination of parental rights. P4P connects parents who’ve just entered the system with parents who’ve successfully navigated it—like Sonya.
“NAMI was looking for a parent who had child-welfare experience, who was willing to come back after everything they’d been through and wanted to help other parents,” Sonya recalls. For a lot of folks, coming back into the system after they’ve been through so much is their greatest trauma. But Sonya, who had been sharing her own story of recovery and family reunification loudly and proudly on social media, caught NAMI’s eye. “I’d talked to literally thousands of people who are just looking for hope,” she says.
When Sarah Miller, NAMI’s expert on peer support, sent her the job description, “I just started crying,” remembers Sonya. “I really could not believe that they had something like this, because when I went through it, I felt so hopeless and confused and alone.” Since starting as a peer specialist in 2022, Sonya quickly grew into her current role managing NAMI’s adult peer programs.
An amazing leader and advocate
“When I meet a parent, my top priority is to identify with them,” says Sonya. “I want them to know that I’ve been there, we’re equal partners, and I want to walk alongside you. My goal is reducing the stigma they feel by sharing my lived experience: ‘I’m not above you, and I’m not below you.’”
NAMI’s parent partners connect parents to community resources. They offer them support groups and education classes. They help them improve their resiliency and recovery skills and build their own natural supports. “I didn’t know what was going on,” Sonya recalls of her own dependency-court experience. “I didn’t know how to be successful or what they were looking for.” Now, she and her team offer parents the education, support, and compassion that she didn’t initially get herself.
Sonya believes everyone is capable of reaching their full potential when given the right opportunities and proper support. She’s also passionate about elevating parents’ voices. In fact, she created a parent leadership board through which parents advocate for improvements in child welfare policy. “Sonya helps her peers find hope, access services, feel respected, and learn to advocate for themselves,” says DOH’s Scott. “Her lasting impact on them is immeasurable.”
“When I meet a parent, my top priority is to identify with them. I want them to know that I’ve been there, we’re equal partners, and I want to walk alongside you.”
Sonya Johnson
In 2024, Sonya was recognized as one of four Child Welfare Professionals of the Year by the Florida Institute for Child Welfare. In nominating her, Scott wrote: “Sonya has been an indispensable partner at the tables where our community and system leaders come together to discuss barriers and work toward impactful, positive solutions. She is not viewed as just a ‘parent with lived experience’ but as a true and trusted partner with great ideas and valuable contributions.”
Scott also notes that Sonya’s impact has rippled beyond Sarasota and Manatee counties. She has stepped up to serve on statewide boards, joined other parents across the state in advocating for families, provided curriculum review and feedback to state entities, and presented at statewide conferences. Last year, NAMI Florida selected Sonya as its 2024 Peer Champion for Recovery. “Sonya is an amazing leader and advocate,” says Scott.
For Sonya, it’s all about helping others. “When everybody else gives up, we don’t,” she says. “Even if reunification isn’t going to be the outcome, we still support you. No matter what happens.”
Learn more here about NAMI Sarasota and Manatee’s Parents for Parents peer-support program.
