Peer Response Inc. was founded in May 2026 by a Wisconsin first responder who saw the same problem playing out across departments in the region.
The problem wasn’t a lack of awareness. Chiefs know their people are struggling. Responders know their colleagues need support. The research on peer support is solid and the programs that exist work. The problem is that building a peer support team from scratch takes training, time, and money, and for a lot of smaller departments, especially those running lean budgets, none of those things are easy to come by.
Two of our three board members actively serve on peer support teams today. Our founder serves on a county-level EMS peer support team. We have seen firsthand what it looks like when a department wants to stand up a program and hits a wall because the funding isn’t there. We have also seen what peer support does for the people who have access to it, and what the absence of it costs.
That’s why we’re here.
What Peer Response Inc. does
We are a regional funder and connector for first responder peer support programs. We don’t provide peer support directly. We don’t compete with the teams that already exist. What we do is help departments get programs off the ground, help existing teams keep going, and connect responders to a broader network of peer support professionals across the region.
Departments can onboard their entire team through our platform at no cost to them. Resources that used to be hard to find such as training materials, regional contacts, and referral pathways, are now accessible in one place. The network helps fill gaps when a department’s own team isn’t enough, and it connects peer supporters to one another so no one is working in isolation.
When our donations and grants allow us to fund training for new peer supporters, that’s exactly what we do. We want to see departments build and sustain their own programs. When the budget allows for it, we encourage chiefs to invest in their teams directly. But when a tight budget is the only thing standing between a responder and getting trained, Peer Response Inc. is here to help close that gap.
Who we are
We are a small, lean organization. Our board is made up of active first responders and a CPA who keeps us accountable. We operate as a Wisconsin 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which means donations are tax-deductible, and we take seriously our responsibility to use every dollar in ways that directly support the mission.
We are early. We are honest about that. But the need is real, the model is clear, and the people building this have lived it. Peer support saves lives. We exist to make sure more departments have access to it.
