Sibling Support as a Global Human Services Field: Findings from a Global Study of Business-Operation in Organizations Providing Support to Siblings of People with Disability

Sibling support is a small sector of human services work providing social support and advocacy for siblings of people with disability. A 2021 study was the first to explore the business-operation of sibling support, with qualitative interviews of providers in five English-speaking, western countries. This current paper reexamines those findings via a survey of 27 providers from 13 countries, from a broader array of language/cultural backgrounds. The findings clarify the characteristics that apply to most sibling support provider organizations that exist globally, while also highlighting that providers in countries with an individualist culture and that have a national/international/online scope have easier circumstances in staffing, resources and organizational capacity than those in countries with collectivist cultures and that have a more local-level scope. The end of the paper discusses the implications of the findings for both the functioning of the international sibling support sector and for other small, under-resourced nonprofit sectors.