Partnering with insiders: A review of peer models across community-engaged research, education and social care.

Within community-engaged research, education and social care, peer models that partner with local "insiders" are increasingly common. Peer models are composed of insider "lay" community members who often share similarities or background with a project's target population. Peers are not academically trained, but work alongside researchers and professionals to carry out specific tasks within a project, or in the truest sense of partnership, peers collaborate throughout the project from start to finish as an equal member of the team.