GPS Group Peer Support has been recognized with a 2025 Global Recognition Award for changing mental health care delivery through an innovative peer-led group support model that addresses America’s escalating behavioral health crisis. Under the leadership of CEO Liz Friedman, the organization has demonstrated exceptional market impact by providing free, evidence-based therapeutic care to thousands of individuals who would otherwise face months or years of waiting for traditional one-on-one therapy. GPS Group Peer Support earned this recognition through rigorous evaluation using the Rasch model, which enabled precise measurement and comparison across multiple categories, including innovation, market impact, and systemic disruption. The organization scored exceptionally high in three critical areas: market impact (rating of 5), addressing global challenges (rating of 5), and disrupting existing paradigms (rating of 5).

Friedman co-founded GPS Group Peer Support to challenge the fundamental assumption that mental health care must follow a one-to-one clinical model. The organization trains professionals and peers to facilitate trauma-informed, culturally responsive group sessions that research shows can be equally or more effective than individual therapy while multiplying access and reducing costs for frontline workers, mothers, people in recovery, and marginalized communities across Massachusetts and beyond. GPS Group Peer Support doesn’t simply offer support groups; instead, it builds sustainable systems through partnerships with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Association for Behavioral Healthcare, and hundreds of community organizations to scale evidence-based care statewide. The model integrates cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and mindfulness-based stress reduction into group formats that create environments of mutual respect, compassion, and safety for all participants.

Systemic Innovation and Legislative Impact

GPS Group Peer Support has distinguished itself by integrating peer-led support, clinical best practices, and policy advocacy into a unified system that operates at a national scale while maintaining deep responsiveness to local community needs. The organization launched MASStrong, a first-in-the-nation program providing free mental health support groups for healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts, which has served as a model for other states seeking to address workforce mental health challenges. Friedman has trained thousands of facilitators and engaged thousands of participants through partnerships with organizations, including the American Psychological Foundation, Perinatal Support International, and the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety. This collaboration has extended GPS Group Peer Support’s reach across recovery, perinatal, refugee, and healthcare provider networks nationwide.

Friedman’s advocacy work demonstrates how GPS Group Peer Support bridges personal change and public health innovation through legislative action that creates systemic shifts. She played a leading role in advancing the GROUP Act of 2025, a landmark piece of legislation that reimagines mental health care funding by integrating group therapeutic care into the healthcare system. This could provide support to over 3.5 million more people if just 10 percent of individual therapy sessions were to shift to a group format. Her legislative expertise extends beyond behavioral health, which became evident when Friedman led the passage of the Massachusetts Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in 2017 and served as a commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, where she helped pass the Massachusetts Ending Child Marriage Act of 2022 and the Massachusetts Equitable Disability Act of 2020. She currently serves on the Health Policy Commission’s Behavioral Health Workforce Center inaugural advisory group, positioning GPS Group Peer Support at the center of statewide policy reform while ensuring that the voices of people with lived experience shape the future of mental health legislation.

Market Disruption and Measurable Outcomes

GPS Group Peer Support has achieved remarkable scale through its innovative model, which challenges traditional approaches to delivering and financing mental health services while demonstrating that healing in the community isn’t only possible and essential for addressing mental health access gaps. The organization has facilitated thousands of group peer support sessions, creating scalable and cost-effective pathways that can be easily integrated into existing programs without significant infrastructure costs while driving measurable improvements in outcomes. Friedman’s approach combines technology, empathy, evidence, and advocacy to create a model that maintains deep human connection while addressing the reality that millions of Americans struggle to access behavioral health care due to workforce shortages and systemic barriers.

The organization’s impact extends beyond numbers to fundamental shifts in how communities understand and access mental health support while reducing stigma. State legislators have invited Friedman to brief them on the future of mental health care, and the National Association of Social Workers Massachusetts Chapter recognized her leadership in trauma-informed group care, which validates the effectiveness of peer-led models in professional settings. She received the TED Women’s Award for her work on behalf of mothers. She appeared in two award-winning documentaries on perinatal mental health, “Dark Side of the Full Moon” and “Not Carol,” which amplified GPS Group Peer Support’s message that when people heal together, they heal stronger while reaching audiences who might never seek traditional clinical services.

Final Words

Friedman brings over 30 years of experience in community and maternal mental health to her role as CEO of GPS Group Peer Support, demonstrating leadership that combines compassion with strategic thinking to build systems that treat the person and the community as a whole. She ensures no one faces emotional pain in isolation by creating accessible, evidence-based pathways to healing that don’t depend on costly one-on-one clinical models, which have proven particularly critical for populations facing long wait times or geographic barriers to care. GPS Group Peer Support is the only organization in the nation that integrates peer-led support, clinical best practices, and policy advocacy into a single, scalable system, while maintaining the flexibility to adapt programming for diverse communities, including refugees, healthcare workers, and perinatal parents.

GPS Group Peer Support has demonstrated that mental health care can be effective and accessible when delivered through trained facilitators in supportive group settings that honor shared experience. The organization continues to expand its reach through partnerships, training programs, and legislative advocacy, reshaping the narrative of what healing looks like while equipping facilitators with skills that go beyond traditional training to strengthen their ability to hold safe, trauma-informed spaces. Alex Sterling, a spokesperson for Global Recognition Awards, stated, “Liz Friedman and GPS Group Peer Support exemplify the innovation and systemic thinking required to solve complex global challenges because they’re not just expanding access to mental health care but fundamentally reimagining how entire populations can access healing through community-based models that are evidence-based and deeply human.”